Pakistan food security study
Document Sample
Food security context analysis for South Asia:
Bangladesh
India
Pakistan
Nepal
Background paper for the food security
consultation in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 18 – 20,
2007
J.M.Kaspersma
March 15, 2007
J.Kaspersma Pagina 1 16-5-2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 8
ICCO’s food security policy ................................................................................................... 8
Food security in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nepal: Main findings from the context
analysis ................................................................................................................................... 9
BANGLADESH .................................................................................................................... 13
Overview of food and nutrition security in Bangladesh .............................................. 13
Background........................................................................................................................... 13
Who are the hungry?............................................................................................................ 13
Primary causes of food insecurity in Bangladesh .......................................................... 14
Spatial factors causing food security .................................................................................... 14
Natural resources ................................................................................................................. 14
Cropping seasons and main crop ......................................................................................... 15
Floods ................................................................................................................................... 15
Droughts .............................................................................................................................. 16
Soil degradation: (potential use of organic/ fertiliser), erosion aspects ................................ 17
Irrigation .............................................................................................................................. 17
Drinking water & arsenic contamination ............................................................................ 18
Lack of land........................................................................................................................... 19
Cattle .................................................................................................................................... 19
Fisheries ................................................................................................................................ 20
Seasonality aspects ............................................................................................................... 21
Nutrition education and nutritional aspects in food security programmes ........................ 21
Employment and (lack of) income diversification ............................................................... 22
Root causes of food insecurity ........................................................................................... 23
Institutional context............................................................................................................. 23
Corruption ............................................................................................................................ 24
Education & lack of awareness about nutrition ................................................................... 24
Open market economy, liberalization, privatisation, globalisation and their influence on
food security ......................................................................................................................... 25
Government policies towards food security ................................................................... 25
Specific groups affected ...................................................................................................... 26
Indigenous people ................................................................................................................. 26
Women ................................................................................................................................. 27
Indigenous women ............................................................................................................... 28
Mothers & children .............................................................................................................. 28
Options for linking and learning, identification of relevant institutes .................... 28
Options for improvement of the food security situation ............................................. 31
Institutional change & corruption ....................................................................................... 31
Trade liberalization and open market economy .................................................................... 31
Education for women and children ...................................................................................... 31
Nutrition education.............................................................................................................. 32
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Diet diversification ............................................................................................................... 32
This is arguably the most sustainable and affordable strategy to improve nutrition
for the majority of the population -- particularly the poor. For poor households,
vegetables and fruits are often the only source of micronutrients in the family diet.
Homestead production of fruits and vegetables provides the household with direct
access to important nutrients that may not be readily available or within their
economic reach. Therefore, home gardening would be a good means to improve
household food security. Equally important, home gardening has been shown to
be a source of additional income, because the household can sell a portion of the
garden’s produce. Studies suggest that this additional income is generally utilized
to purchase supplementary food items, further increasing the diversification of the
family’s diet. (Talukder 2000) ......................................................................................... 32
Minority groups ................................................................................................................... 32
Natural resources management ........................................................................................... 33
Reducing crop damage ......................................................................................................... 33
Irrigation: use of treadle pumps to decrease costs ................................................................ 33
Arsenic contamination of groundwater/ drinking water ..................................................... 33
Khasland ............................................................................................................................... 34
Rehabilitation of degraded land through livestock ............................................................... 34
Food assistance and income diversification for the poorest .................................................. 34
INDIA ..................................................................................................................................... 35
Background........................................................................................................................... 35
Primary causes of food security in India ......................................................................... 36
Natural resources management ........................................................................................... 36
Rainfed agriculture ............................................................................................................. 39
Homestead and kitchen gardening ....................................................................................... 39
Landownership ..................................................................................................................... 39
Employment guarantee act................................................................................................... 39
Income diversification .......................................................................................................... 40
Health ................................................................................................................................... 41
Gender .................................................................................................................................. 42
Genetic Modification technology ......................................................................................... 44
Root causes of food insecurity ........................................................................................... 45
Institutional context ............................................................................................................. 45
Open market economy and liberalisation ............................................................................. 46
Government policies towards food security ................................................................... 47
Specific groups affected ...................................................................................................... 48
Female headed households .................................................................................................... 49
Options for linking and learning, identification of relevant institutes .................... 50
Options for improvement of the food security situation ............................................. 51
General recommendations .................................................................................................... 51
Natural resources management ........................................................................................... 52
Gender equality .................................................................................................................... 53
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Nutrition awareness and education ..................................................................................... 53
Genetic Modification ............................................................................................................ 54
Improvement of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act ....................................... 55
Local and regional market development ............................................................................... 55
PAKISTAN ............................................................................................................................ 57
Who are the hungry?............................................................................................................ 57
Primary causes of food insecurity in Pakistan ..................................................................... 58
Natural resources management ........................................................................................... 58
Health ................................................................................................................................... 60
Gender inequality ................................................................................................................. 61
Inequity in household food distribution ............................................................................... 61
Equity in landownership ...................................................................................................... 61
Employment and income diversification .............................................................................. 62
Nutrition education.............................................................................................................. 62
Root causes of food insecurity in Pakistan...................................................................... 62
Informal institutions ............................................................................................................ 62
Corruption ............................................................................................................................ 63
Open market economy and liberalisation ............................................................................. 64
Government policies towards food security ................................................................... 64
Food self-sufficiency ............................................................................................................. 65
Farming sector...................................................................................................................... 65
Water management .............................................................................................................. 65
Promoting export of agriculture commodities ..................................................................... 66
Specific groups affected ...................................................................................................... 66
Access to Education ............................................................................................................. 66
Exclusion from Access to Land & Water ............................................................................. 66
Access to Effective Safety Nets............................................................................................. 66
Exclusion from Decision-making & Service Institutions .................................................... 66
Exclusion from Access to Political Capital & Power ........................................................... 66
Exclusion from Access to Development Interventions ........................................................ 67
Exclusion on the Basis of Ethnicity & Tribal Identity ......................................................... 67
Gender-Based Exclusion ...................................................................................................... 67
Exclusion Based on Age & Life Cycle Position .................................................................... 67
Options for linking and learning, identification of relevant institutes .................... 67
Options for improvement of the food security situation ............................................. 69
Provision of credit ................................................................................................................ 69
Income diversification .......................................................................................................... 70
Improvement in nutrition .................................................................................................... 70
Provision of a physical and institutional Infrastructure ..................................................... 70
Changing informal institutions ........................................................................................... 70
Strategies against social exclusion of the poor and minorities ............................................. 71
Corruption ............................................................................................................................ 71
NEPAL .................................................................................................................................... 73
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Background ............................................................................................................................ 73
Spatial dimension ................................................................................................................. 73
Primary causes of food insecurity in Nepal .................................................................... 73
Natural resources management ........................................................................................... 73
Nutrition .............................................................................................................................. 75
Gender .................................................................................................................................. 76
Employment and income diversification .............................................................................. 76
Access to Credit .................................................................................................................... 76
Trade liberalisation ............................................................................................................... 77
Conflict and food security in Nepal ..................................................................................... 77
Root causes of food insecurity ........................................................................................... 77
Institutional context ............................................................................................................. 77
Social institutions ................................................................................................................ 78
Government policies on food security ............................................................................. 78
Specific groups affected ...................................................................................................... 80
Women ................................................................................................................................. 80
Children ................................................................................................................................ 80
Options for linking and learning, identification of relevant institutes. ................... 80
Options for improvement of food insecurity.................................................................. 81
Lack of assets ........................................................................................................................ 82
Infrastructure ....................................................................................................................... 83
Health and nutrition education............................................................................................ 83
Water resources and gender ................................................................................................. 83
Improvement of institutional context .................................................................................. 84
School feeding ....................................................................................................................... 86
References .............................................................................................................................. 87
Annex 1 ................................................................................................................................... 93
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ADAB Association of Development Agencies Bangladesh
ADB Asian Development Bank
ALRD Association for Land Reforms and Development
APP Agriculture Perspective Plan
BARC Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council
BCAS Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies
BfdW Brot für die Welt
BPL Below Poverty Line
BRAC Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee
CEC Centre for Education and Communication
CHT Chittagong Hill Tracts
Cusec Cubic metre per second
Crore 1 crore = 10,000,000
CSO Civil Society Organisation
EPI Extension Programme of Immunisation
DFID Department for International Development
FA Food Assistance
FAP Flood Action Plan or Food Assistance Plan
FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United
Nations
FATA Federally Administered Tribal Areas
FCI Food Corporation of India
FDS Food Distribution System
FFW Food for Work
GEAC Genetic Engineering Approval Committee
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GER Gross Enrolment Ratio
GM Genetically Modified
GoB Government of Bangladesh
GoI Government of India
GoN Government of Nepal
GoP Government of Pakistan
HYV High Yielding Variety
IDA Iron Deficiency Anaemia
IDD Iodine Deficiency Disorder
IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute
IGA Income Generating Activity
IP Indigenous People
IPG International Public Goods
IPRSP Integrated Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
IWMI International Water Management Institute
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IWRM Integrated Water Resources Management
JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency
LGED Local Government Engineering Department
MAF Million Acre Feet
MDG Millennium Development Goal
MT Million Tonnes
NA Northern Areas
NAB National Accountability Bureau
NARS National Agricultural Research System
NGO Non Governmental Organisation
NR Natural Resources
NREGA National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
NRM Natural Resources Management
NWFP North Western Frontier Province
PACS Poorest Areas Civil Society Programme
PDS Public Distribution System
PEM Protein Energy Malnutrition
PEP Productivity Enhancement Programme
RESAL European Commission Food Ssecurity Network
RDRS Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service
SDPI Sustainable Development Policy Institute
SME Small and Medium Enterprises
SPFS Special Programme on Food Security of the FAO
SC & ST
TI Transparency International
TPDS Targeted Public Distribution System
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
Unicef United Nations Children’s Fund
USAid United States Agency for International
Development
VGD Vulnerable Group Development
VGF Vulnerable Group Feeding
WAPDA Water And Power Development Authority
WB World Bank
WFP World Food Programme
WHO World Health Organisation
WTO World Trade Organisation
WUG Water Users Group
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Introduction
In 2007 ICCO has entered a period, in which new programmes have been designed for
all thematic areas in which ICCO is active. One of these programmes is food security. To
be more effective and to improve linking and learning among the several partner
organisations that are working on the same subject, ICCO aims to work in a
programmatic way. As such, an overall ICCO food security programme for the period
2007 – 2010 was developed. In this framework a consultation on food security in South
Asia is currently prepared and to be held in April 2007 in Kathmandu, Nepal. This paper
serves as a background document for the food security consultation and its aim is to
give an overview of the existing situation in four countries of South Asia: Bangladesh,
India, Pakistan and Nepal. It does not claim to be exhaustive, and tries to provide the
most important topics for discussion. The focus will be on the following issues:
Situation of food security in South Asia.
Causes of food insecurity with specific attention for sustainable land use
especially in arid areas, seasonality and diversification of crops, income both
from agriculture and non-agricultural sources, water and sanitation situation
and utilisation aspects
Underlying causes: governmental policies especially related to agriculture and
health, links with nutrition, open market economy, liberalization, privatization,
globalisation, specific groups that are affected.
Options for linking and learning, identification of relevant institutes
Options for improvement of food security situation
ICCO’s food security policy
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic
access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life. Household food security is the application of
this concept at the family level, with individuals within households as the focus of
concern (definition from World Food Summit 1996).
Food insecurity exists when people are undernourished as a result of the physical
unavailability of food, their lack of social or economic access to adequate food, and/or
inadequate food utilisation. Food-insecure people are those individuals whose food
intake falls below their minimum calorie (energy) requirements, as well as those who
exhibit physical symptoms caused by energy and nutrient deficiencies resulting from an
inadequate or unbalanced diet or from the body's inability to use food effectively
because of infection or disease.
According to this definition food security has three cornerstones: availability of food,
access to food and the utilisation of food. The specific role of women in food security is
important in all the three pillars.
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Availability: Sufficient food should be available through local (own) production or
importation of food. Women produce a large part of the available food.
Access to food is ensured when all households and all individuals within those
households are able to obtain appropriate food for a nutritious diet. Note that
adequate access can be obtained without households being self-sufficient in food
production. The ability of households to generate sufficient income together with
their own production is important to meet food needs. Women have an important
role in the purchase of food for the household, if the do not have access to income,
household food security will suffer. Within a household women and girls often have
less access to adequate food.
The food utilisation pillar of food security means ensuring food security outcomes
at an individual level; nutrition security. It refers to consumption and the capacity of
the body to use the consumed food i.e. the ability of the human body to take food
and to transform it into energy and nutrients that are used to undertake daily
activities or that are stored. Utilisation requires not just an adequate diet, but also a
healthy physical environment (so as to avoid disease) and an understanding of
proper caring principles. Utilisation of food brings food security down at individual
level and underlines the importance of the special attention for the needs of
vulnerable groups, such as for example children and women. Women have a very
important role in the intra-household distribution of food. Apart form their role in
the distribution of the food and the care for children, women have specific
nutritional needs, especially during pregnancy and breastfeeding. This makes the
attention for women in food security programmes crucial for the success of those
programmes. Furthermore, to reduce hunger and malnutrition it is crucial to
improve health, sanitation, safe drinking water and care for vulnerable groups
(Voluntary guidelines, 2004).
This policy is the basis of this food security context analysis and the constraints and
challenges for each of the three cornerstones of access, availability and utilization are
described in the respective chapters.
Food security in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nepal: Main findings from the context
analysis
Who are the hungry?
In Bangladesh, the highest proportion of food insecure people are among landless and
non-farm households, which is half the countries rural population. The largest number
of poor people lives in Rajshahi division in the Northwest, followed by Chittagong and
Khulna in the Southeast and South.
In Pakistan 38 out of 120 districts are considered poor and extremely food insecure. The
majority of these districts fall in Baluchistan and NWFP and almost all districts in the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Northern Areas (NA) are extremely
food insecure, which are all tribal areas. Also Sindh suffers, with severe problems in
water quality and drought.
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In Nepal, more than 50% of the people are considered food insecure. The west is more
food insecure than the east and the mountain belt is more food insecure than the hills,
and the hills than the terai.
In India, the states of Bihar, Jharkand and Madhya Pradesh are the most food insecure.
Every second child is moderately or severely malnourished. Vulnerable sections of the
population are women across income groups, children, rural landless poor, scheduled
castes and dwellers in forest and hill areas.
Access to land is very important in improving food security of the poor in the four
studied countries. The issue of landlessness is disproportionally borne by the
marginalized lower caste groups.
With regard to natural resource management it is needless to say that Bangladesh
suffers greatly from yearly floods and that the lack of labour demand due to these floods
constrain the consumption level of the affected people. Also, continuous drought in
Bangladesh, but more so in Pakistan and India, is an important determinant of food
security. Next to the deficiency of rains, droughts are caused by the large scale extraction
of groundwater. More attention needs to be paid to the possibilities in rainfed
agriculture, next to irrigation.
It is not hard to imagine that the occurrence of disease caused by poor water quality is
very high. About 40 percent of communicable diseases in for example Pakistan are
water-borne. The impact of waterborne diseases on mortality is severe, especially on
infant deaths. Water borne diarrhoea and dehydration caused by diarrhoea is a major
cause of mortality among children.
Many poor suffer from health and nutrition problems simply because they did not learn
about the nutrients they need. Also in higher income groups this is a common
phenomenon. It is important to find out which malnutrition problems can be solved by
nutrition education and which ones require improvement in socio-economic status.
A lot of attention is paid to income generating activities in development programmes.
There is extensive evidence in all four countries of this study that the promotion of IGAs
can be successful to improve income (diversification) and food security. However, the
most vulnerable and underprivileged groups lack the basic requirements needed for
successful business activities. People that are either sick, disabled, or totally assetless are
not able to start and IGA.
The institutional context of a country often determines the more fundamental causes of
food insecurity. Formal and informal institutions can be distinguished, institutions being
defined as ‘the way things are done’. Informal institutions that result in increased
poverty are many. The most important ones playing a role in Pakistan, Nepal, India and
Bangladesh are the class relations, based on landholding and possession of other natural
resources. The state has a considerable monopoly over the allocation of resources,
J.Kaspersma Pagina 10 16-5-2012
inviting widespread corruption. Caste and kinship relations underpin a pervasive
system of patron-clientelism and increase exclusion of the poor.
The open market in economy in South Asia has a number of negative impacts such as
the reduced access to resources and production, unemployment and reduction of
income. While the WTO has been successful in reducing the overall level of tariffs with
increased transparency and greater market access, the countries in South Asia continue
to face barriers in accessing foreign markets. Attention should be paid to expand the
degree in which developing countries have the right to take measures to protect their
food security.
The context analysis points out that food insecurity is often linked to specific groups.
These groups may face food insecurity can be distinguished based on caste and kinship,
access to land and gender: low caste groups, women (female headed households, female
children, young women and stigmatised females), disabled and minority ethnic groups.
The latter are in Pakistan the people in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and
Northern Areas and in Bangladesh mostly the groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
The analysis further made clear that there are deep seated difficulties that have to be
dealt with when trying to improve the performance of the government with regard to
food security. However, there are some starting points:
The government has to provide stronger links with international norms and
standards for political accountability and effectiveness.
Supporting the demand side: for the private sector, public opinion and civil
society organisations to become better informed and more assertive in calling the
government to account.
Advocacy: support NGOs engaged in human rights work (especially women’s
rights), good governance and environmental issues.
Strengthen the private sector. Increased support of small and medium
enterprises, which have contributed to rising and diversifying livelihoods of the
rural poor.
The four countries should strive together with other developing countries for the
inclusion of a multilateral agreement against hunger, as is described in Sharma (2005).
This should be based on the guiding principle of the right to food and should form the
basis for all future lobby and advocacy activities. This would ensure that countries have
the right to take adequate measures if their commitment towards the WTO obligations
leads to more poverty and hunger. Also, as the agricultural subsidies are not being
phased out the developing countries need an immediate protection from the flood of
cheap imports. This would safeguard agriculture and food security. (RDRS, 2005).
Natural resources management is multi-dimensional, multi-sectoral, and multi-
institutional, involving multiple stakeholders. These components are interacting and
need an institutional framework that identifies inter-linkages, flow of information and
J.Kaspersma Pagina 11 16-5-2012
integrates the technical, environmental and social dimensions. Under such a framework
solutions water resources management solutions can be explored that take into account
droughts, floods, the role of fisheries, salinisation problems and land degradation in an
integrated manner.
In the remainder of this paper, per country the causes of food insecurity are described,
the affected groups, government policies, the solutions towards food security, and the
options for linking and learning with other organisations are explored.
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BANGLADESH Food security context analysis
BANGLADESH
Overview of food and nutrition security in Bangladesh
Background
Bangladesh is a small country of 147570 square km with a population of about 134
million. It is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Shortage of food
is a usual phenomenon and the country has to import food in almost every year at the
cost of valuable exchange.
A low resources base, poor economy, lack of good governance and high incidence of
natural disasters, characterize Bangladesh. All those factors have adverse implications
on economic growth, the poverty situation, food security and hunger. Different sources
say that about 20 % of the population (28 million)is ultra poor, being defined as
absolutely landless people, living on Khasland or land belonging to others and not
having any productive unit. They face continuous and severe food insecurity and suffer
from hunger and malnutrition.
During the last ten to fifteen years, there has been a significant diversification in the
rural economy. Small trade, services and off-farm processing and manufacturing have
risen in importance. However, agriculture and fisheries remain critical to the livelihoods
of many poor, both for self and wage employment. Further, the process of diversification
of rural economy and livelihood options still greatly rely on growth of agriculture and
the productivity of natural resources including land, water, fisheries, forestry etc.
Who are the hungry?
People living in rural districts, consuming less than 1800 kcal per capita per day are
considered to be food insecure in Bangladesh. In municipalities this is based on income
level, meaning a per capita income of less than TK 2000 is considered food insecure.
(RDRS, 2005).
The highest proportion of people consuming less than 1800 kcal per day is found among
landless and non-farm households, which is half of the country’s rural population. The
largest number of poor live in Rajshahi division in the Northwest, followed by
Chittagong and Khulna in the Southeast and South.
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BANGLADESH Food security context analysis
Primary causes of food insecurity in Bangladesh
According to the study on food security and hunger in Bangladesh (RDRS, 2005), a great
majority of the ultra poor, (82%) feel that lack of gainful employment is the main cause
of their food insecurity and hunger, followed by low income and landlessness (73% and
70%). 60% mention a lack of money earning members in their families as one of the main
causes.
Other causes that are mentioned: natural calamities (drought, floods, river erosion,
cyclones), scarcity of land and a low level of agricultural production, lack of application
of the modern technology in agriculture, dependency on the single crop in a year,
disguised and seasonal unemployment, low and irregular income, improper use of the
natural resources, poor governance, corruption, lack of proper distribution of food etc.
Below the most important causes will be elaborated.
Spatial factors causing food security
The 1996 Basic Needs Survey in Bangladesh (Gill, 2003) indicated that while the national
average energy intake of 2,158 kcal was slightly (1.7%) higher than the officially-defined
minimum requirement, there was wide variation between districts, with average daily
energy intake ranging from 2,470–1,819 kcal. The World Food Programme’s (WFP)
district level food insecurity maps reveal a marked clustering of areas classed as having
‘very high’ food insecurity in the west and Northwest of the country, i.e. Rajshahi,
particularly along the major river systems and in the South, such as Khulna and
Chittagong areas. This part of the country is prone to both drought and flooding at
different times of the year, and riparian areas are subject to the additional risk of
riverbank erosion. About ten million people in Bangladesh live in close proximity to the
major rivers in very erosion- and flood-prone conditions. At least half of the land surface
is subject to inundation. Even in a normal year, thousands of people lose their homes
and lands to flooding, with about 2,400 km2 affected each year. Accreted lands do
reappear further downstream as chars, but establishing title to these is a matter of power
and influence, rather than compensation for loss. Informal settlers on char lands are
among the poorest and most oppressed in the country. Half of all agricultural
households are now classified as ‘functionally landless’, and it is estimated that over half
of the rural landless in Bangladesh lost their land to riverbank erosion. (Gill, 2003) Other
vulnerable areas are located along the coast, where cyclones and tidal waves are a
regular threat to lives and livelihood assets and the low-lying flood-prone haor areas of
the northeast.
Natural resources
A fragmented and ineffective approach of natural resource management (NRM) coupled
with a weak institutional framework result in degradation and low productivity of
resources. Further, policies and institutions to take control over the already degraded
resources base generated lot of conflicts in access to and use of natural resources (NRs),
where the poor and the marginal people are continuously losing their traditional rights
and entitlement to the resources.
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BANGLADESH Food security context analysis
On the other hand, the rich and the power elites are increasingly gaining greater control
over the resources, who very often overexploit the resources without considering the
future productivity and sustainability of the resources base.
In the past, the poor and common people would take substantial livelihood supports
from the NRs in terms of food and fodder, nutrition, housing materials, health seeking,
protection from natural disaster etc., as well as they conserved the resources for
generations. But in the present situation, the traditional safety nets of the poor provided
by the NRs have been seriously eroded. The productivity and the capacity of the NRs
has also been greatly declined and thus the livelihood of the poor are at a stake and
they would face greater food insecurity and vulnerability.
To feed the population it is a dire necessity to increase crop production. With limited
land area, horizontal expansion is hardly possible, but increase in crop production is still
possible with vertical expansion through increasing crop yield per unit area and by
reducing production losses.
Cropping seasons and main crop
In Bangladesh there are two cropping seasons: kharif and rabi. Kharif which coincides
with the monsoon may be divided into kharif-I and kharif-II. Rabi covers the cooler
winter period.
Rice is the main crop in Bangladesh, and there are three rice crops: aus, aman and boro.
Aus is grown during March to mid-August, aman during July to November and boro is
transplanted in winter (December – January) and is harvested in the pre-monsoon
season. Previously, there were many varieties of rice, but today there are mostly high
yielding varieties (HYV), which are largely dependent on purchased inputs of seeds,
fertilizer, pesticides and water in a homogenized environment. (Mollinga, 2000) These
HYV have apparently positive impacts in the form of increasing yields, but there are
also threats and risks for environment, bio-diversity, ecology and society. Caution is
needed about the possible seed crisis in the context of growing influence and power of
the multi-national and trans-national companies over production, control and marketing
of seeds in the near future. This may increase food insecurity.
Floods
Floods have had a devastating impact on the food security situation in Bangladesh. A
research on the 1998 floods concluded that the lack of labour demand due to floods has
severely constrained the consumption level of the affected people. For people who are
mostly involved in wage labour, the amount of work during floods is limited, resulting
in less income. People were able to maintain a similar level of food consumption by
postponing other purchases such as clothes and non food items and by purchasing food
on credit.
Many households also loose a significant share of their agricultural production. Next to
the loss of cattle and poultry, and to smaller extent vegetable crops, the three rice crops
J.Kaspersma Pagina 15 16-5-2012
BANGLADESH Food security context analysis
(aus, aman and boro) are usually severely affected by floods. In the pre-monsoon period
(mid-april to mid may), flash floods often damage boro rice. Floods affect aus and aman
during monsoon and post-monsoon periods. Almost two-thirds of the country’s
agricultural land gets inundated by floods. The 1998 flood inundated half of the country
for about 67 days at depths of up to 3 metres. It was estimated that Bangladesh then lost
around 2.2 million tonnes of rice. (Mollinga, 2000).
Droughts
Next to floods, Bangladesh is at the same time subject to droughts. Especially the west
and northwest is prone to droughts. This is also the area where poverty is severe.
According to the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), there is a
significant yield loss every year due to drought. Depending on the degree of drought,
yield losses vary from 20% to more than 45 % for paddy during the kharif and from 30%
to more than 70% during rabi and pre-kharif, for either wheat, potato or mustard. This is
a significant amount of food damaged due to drought and the water availability is
moreover a restraining factor in switching to more water demanding crops.
Drought is a "creeping phenomenon," The effects of drought accumulate slowly over a
considerable period of time, and may linger for years after the termination of the event.
Drought impacts are spread over a larger geographical area than are damages that result
from other natural hazards. Although droughts are not always continuous in any area,
they do occur sometimes in the low rainfall zones of the country. The droughts of 1994-
95 in the northwestern districts of Bangladesh led to a shortfall of rice production of 3.5
million tons.
The northwestern part is prone to drought mainly because of rainfall variability in the
pre-monsoon and the post-monsoon periods. Inadequate pre-monsoon showers, a delay
in the onset of the rainy season or an early departure of the monsoon may create
drought conditions in Bangladesh, and adversely affect crop output since it puts severe
strain on the land potential. It acts as a catalyst of land degradation through reduced soil
moisture and water retention, increased soil erosion, decline in soil organic contents and
overexploitation of sparse vegetation. Human interventions in the form of land abuse
and mismanagement have exacerbated these actions during the spells of periodic
droughts. An analysis of the relative effects of flood and drought on rice production
shows that drought is more devastating than floods to aggregate production.
In the early 1970s and 1980s in the drought-prone areas of northern Bangladesh the
agricultural development projects were developed to provide ground irrigation through
thousands of shallow and deep tube wells. Since scarcity of water was the main obstacle
against intensive agriculture pumping up groundwater helped grow crops year round.
Through thousands of shallow and deep tubewells, HYV paddy was introduced to
hundreds of acres of marginal and sloped lands. Since land is being over used and
degraded due to pressure of population, effective population control, judicious land use
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and sustainable agricultural practices are urgently required to mitigate droughts. The
carrying capacity of the land resource in Bangladesh has been critically surpassed. Use
of land for production of two or three crops a year may be limited, because the soil is not
getting sufficient rest to recover.
Soil degradation: (potential use of organic/ fertiliser), erosion aspects
Land areas under active floodplains (unstable char lands) and lands under sloppy
situations are subject to moderate to heavy erosion. Further, a considerable area under
peat, and with high hills has limited land use potential. In addition, population
expansion is claiming much of the land resources in terms of settlements and other
related infrastructures. The number of farms has increased by nearly 18% and due to
fragmentation in land, there has been serious transformation in farm size; decrease in
the large and medium farms and increase in small farms by over 33%. Coverage under
homestead has increased by nearly 37%, resulting in a decline of cultivated area by
about 12%. In other words, roughly 220 ha of land goes out of cultivation per day which
means, nearly 1% of the cultivable land is being lost every year. This has serious
implications on the sustainability of agricultural development potential, food supply
and food security of Bangladesh. (FAO)
Farmers are aware of the land degradation situation. Light degradation may not be
clearly visible, but farmers know that yields or other agricultural productions are lower
than they otherwise could have been, or that additional inputs are necessary. Moderate
degradation will often be visibly apparent, including stunted crops or sparsely
vegetated rangeland. Crop yields are substantially lower. By definition, strong
degradation means that the land has to be abandoned and no longer has the potential
for economically viable production. The moderate forms of land degradation, for
example soil nutrient depletion, can be reversed by change in management, the resource
is renewable and the degradation reversible. In case of severe forms of degradation, like
salinisation and waterlogging, land productivity can be restored by reclamation. In case
of soil erosion, some of the effects may appear to be reversible.
Impact of salinization is more apparent than other forms of land degradation. This is
partly because its effects are substantial and visibly apparent, partly because the
degradation can be readily quantified. In Bangladesh, mainly rabi season crops (wheat,
barley, maize, boro, mustard and vegetables) are affected due to different degrees of
salinity. Production loss is estimated here for wheat considering an average yield of 2.0
t/ha.
Irrigation
The transformation from traditional monsoon dependent crop agriculture towards
modern irrigated agriculture has been the strategy of the Government of Bangladesh
(GoB) in the last three decades. Minor irrigation development has been used to reach the
goal of self sufficiency in cereals. As a result, the total irrigated area has also increased
rapidly. The contribution of groundwater to the total irrigated area has increased as
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well, to 80% in 1999. Based on the 1991 National Water Plan estimates for irrigation
expansion, the irrigated area would reach its maximum potential limit by 2025.
However, in reality, this target does not seem feasible. Even a cost-effective and
environment-friendly expansion of irrigation along with supplies of complementary
inputs, may not be enough to stay at a level of food self-sufficiency as the population
would continue to increase over the mentioned period. Hence, other means of achieving
national food security should be kept under regular review and adopted as appropriate.
Next to developing and expanding the irrigated area, there is the issue of access to
irrigation water. If the poor have land at all to irrigate, often the more powerful elite of a
village will have control over water resources, in the case of surface irrigation because
they know the officer in control of the gates or they chose the gate master themselves. It
might be that they have powerful position in a water user group (WUG). Also
programmes for natural resources management will often be used for the benefit of local
elite.
In the case of groundwater irrigation, a farmer needs to have access to a tubewell and
needs to buy a pump, to irrigate his land. Often there are no financial means to do so.
Drinking water & arsenic contamination
Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh threatens the health of up to 30
million people. Arsenic-rich bedrock of the Brahmaputra river basin filters drinking
water pumped to the surface through tubewells and causes serious skin desease,
arsenicosis, and ultimately cancer to exposed persons. A report of the FAO now also
suggests that people may be exposed to arsenic as well through food crops irrigated by
contaminated groundwater. Also, a correlation has been found between arsenic in soil
and reduction in crop yields, particularly in rice. (FAO, 2006).
The effects of arsenic are far from uniform. In some areas all tubewells are contaminated,
while in other places mixed results are obtained. Farmers are likely to continue to use
groundwater for irrigation unless a reliable and cheaper alternative becomes available.
It is important to prevent the increase of the number of people with arsenicosis, both for
health and economic reasons. Drug treatment to eliminate arsenic from the body is
expensive, leading to the conclusion that only palliative care is affordable in rural areas
of Bangladesh. Bangladeshi villagers affected by arsenicosis are likely to lose a
significant amount of productive time. In addition, the disease may become a burden on
villagers’ overall financial and time resources. The poorest suffer the most from
arsenicosis. (WHO, 2000.)
People with arsenic poisoning suffer enormous social stigma in Bangladesh. Many
people believe arsenic poisoning is contagious or a curse. Parents are reluctant to let
their children play with children suffering arsenic poisoning and patients can be
shunned within their villages. For women, the situation is worse. In Bangladesh, a
woman's attractiveness lies in her beauty which is often judged by her pale complexion.
This makes it harder, in some cases impossible, for single women suffering from arsenic
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poisoning to marry. Once married, women face the risk of divorce if they develop
arsenicosis skin lesions. This can be a dire situation in Bangladesh's male dominated
society, where unmarried women are more vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion.
Women are also less likely to receive early diagnosis or treatment. (Unicef, 2002.)
There is a theory on the causes of arsenic contamination, stating that this is a recent
phenomena. The arsenic contamination results from lowering the water table below
deposits of organic matter. Arsenic oxidizes and releases arsenic which is reduced to its
soluble lethal form and returns to the surface during recharge in the rainy season. The
absence of reported poisoning prior to the nineteen eighties supports the theory that the
poisoning of the groundwater is recent. Increased irrigation due to the reduction of
surface water flow caused by a multitude of dams built in India on streams crossing the
boarder into Bangladesh resulted in repeated lowering and recharge of the water table.
Also the drilling of thousands of tube wells to supply domestic needs and prevent the
use of polluted surface water resulted in repeated draw down and recharge around the
well. The building of the dams and the drilling of tube wells occurred during the
nineteen seventies and resulted in repeated wetting and drying of organic rich
sediments containing arsenic.
Lack of land
Production of food is a necessary condition towards ensuring food security. But
evidently production alone is not a guarantee that people will have access to food that is
produced. In reality, access to food is determined by several factors. First, people may
have access to food if they produce. For the majority this is not the case, given the
ownership structure and tenancy conditions in the agricultural production system. In
Bangladesh, about 10 per cent of the households, own 60 per cent of the total land. On
the other hand, over half of the total rural households do not own any land. Sometimes,
landless can have access to land as tenants. Sharecropping is the dominant tenancy
arrangement. The conditions for sharecropping, however, are becoming harsher. In
practice, sharecroppers are obliged to pay all the costs of production, but receive only
half of the product. Consequently, access to food for these households remains limited
(Mollinga, 2000). Corruption in land administration is also widespread in the form of
solicitation for bribes when buying or selling land.
In absence of land ownership, one can have access to food through the market, as a
buyer. This again largely depends on the level of employment and wages. Most poor
households work on land as labourers.
Cattle
Livestock produced under the prevailing small scale conditions have a low level of
productivity. This is partly because the diet is generally below maintenance levels, and
all of the food is used for maintenance rather than production of livestock products. This
is demonstrated in the case of large ruminants in Bangladesh where dung is the most
valuable output from these animals.
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The most significant constraints to small scale livestock are nutrition, animal health,
animal productivity/genetic make-up of the animals, extension of information provision
of finance to small scale producers, and marketing.
The provision of adequate nutrition to livestock is a major problem in the region.
However, considerable information on alternative feed resources is available and there
is a need to extend this information to livestock owners. Any information should include
production benefits derived from alternative feeds and appropriate feeding regimes. A
slight increase in feed intake through the provision of supplementation has been noted
to lead to large increases in production. For example, supplementary feeding of
indigenous cattle by smallholders in Bangladesh increased milk yield from 1 litre per
day to 5 litres per day. It is important to note that this change took place without any
change in the genetic make up of the animals.
Livestock health is a limiting factor to production. A major problem is the low level of
knowledge and understanding of livestock producers of the benefits of disease control.
However, even those aware of the benefits have limited access to appropriate vaccines
and drugs. In some situations cooperatives and non government organizations (NGO’s)
have provided limited training and assist in organizing vaccination of stock. As
livestock owners become commercially based, they will become more aware of the
benefits of disease control but will not be aware of the most appropriate methods for
disease control. Government veterinary services are not able to meet these aims and
there is a need for them to reassess their role in livestock health. The effectiveness of
many livestock projects in Bangladesh shows that production could be increased
rapidly. A major step in this process would be the education of livestock owners to view
their livestock as income earning. The large rural population, small farm size and
intensive land use in the region do not allow the setting aside of areas specifically for
livestock grazing or fodder production. As a result the provision of adequate nutrition
for livestock production is a major constraint.
(Poverty alleviation and food security in Asia – role of livestock, FAO 1999)
Fisheries
Open water fisheries traditionally have always been a very important natural resource,
in terms of its very rich biodiversity, in terms of its size and the number of people
depending on it and particularly from a food security point of view, given the number of
the very poor and the most vulnerable groups who depend on this resources for their
routine requirements.
Floodplain fishing is subsistence fishing carried out mainly by the rural poor, marginal
farmers and landless labourers. It is primarily for home consumption and secondarily to
supplement cash income. The floodplain fish catch is the single most important source of
animal protein, vitamin A, essential fatty acids and calcium for rural people, particularly
for nursing mothers, pregnant women and children of ages above two years (Mollinga,
2000).
Flood control, drainage and irrigation embankments, river closures and sluice gates
have disrupted continuity between rivers and floodplains, and thereby the breeding,
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feeding and early growth of many fish. The poor are suffering most due to this
destruction.
In the National water policy of Bangladesh the important role of fisheries is recognized,
but the policy does not commit itself to protecting this resource, the statements remain
general. The protection of fishery resources must be ensured through mandatory study
and evaluation of the impact and ensuring remedial action. Sustenance of open water
fishery resources, particularly in the inundated floodplains is of paramount importance
for the vast majority of the rural people, whose principal source of animal protein
supply comes from fish in the floodplains (Mollinga, 2000).
Some general concluding remarks towards natural resources management in
Bangladesh have to be made, and are on a more institutional level:
Local elite groups sometimes have a negative effect on resource management,
using programmes for their own interests
Management objectives specific to one sector, as we saw under fisheries, can
potentially cause conflict, by undermining other people’s livelihoods and
existing practices.
Systems to manage natural resources are more likely to succeed if there are clear
opportunities and incentives for local people to participate.
Seasonality aspects
There are two seasonal dimensions to food insecurity. The first is the high exposure to
climatic shock at certain times of the year. The other arises from the cycle of food
production and consequent seasonal variation in food availability and prices. There are
two lean seasons, March-April and October-November. The second is particularly severe
for the rural landless, because it coincides with the pre-harvest period of low
employment opportunities in agriculture. However, some important progress has been
made in this area, as the expansion in irrigation and hence winter rice production has
reduced intra-year variation in rice production and therefore prices, and this has
lowered the vulnerability of the poor to seasonal price fluctuation in rice.
Because of the seasonal shock affecting their livelihood, people would be better-off if
they have a higher diversified income. Income diversification often leads to a general
improvement of the family’s situation and it reduces the seasonal shock as they have
other income to fall back on. Also families who have migrating family members during
the low seasons are better-off.
Nutrition education and nutritional aspects in food security programmes
Bangladesh's major nutritional problems include chronic energy deficiency, Protein
Energy Malnutrition (PEM), maternal malnutrition, low birth weight, vitamin A
deficiency, iron deficiency anaemia, iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) and deficiencies
of other micronutrients such as riboflavin, vitamin C and zinc. The major causes of the
nutritional disorders are inadequate supplies and/or intake of micronutrient-rich foods;
lack of nutritional awareness; low production and purchasing power; inadequate
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household food security; inequitable food distribution within families; traditional food
beliefs; and inappropriate infant feeding practices (e.g. bottle feeding, colostrum
discarding).
Despite obstacles and the lack of a nutrition education policy, important nutrition
education work has been carried out. In agriculture, nutrition education has been a
component in a marginal-farming and small-farm system, crop intensification and
diversification programmes, horticultural development, strengthened nutrition research,
sessions for training trainers and field demonstrations. The Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare has programmes for nutrition education, feeding malnourished children,
vitamin A capsule distribution, growth monitoring, iron and folic acid supplementation
for pregnant women, extended programme of immunization (EPI) activities, treatment
of minor illnesses, antenatal care and family planning. The Ministry of Women's Affairs
and Social Welfare offers training for enhancing nutrition and socio-economic
development, vitamin A capsule distribution, nutrition awareness-raising programmes
and day care services for children of working women.
While people with knowledge of nutrition education are available for activities, there are
constraints including lack of strong political and administrative commitment;
inadequate integration of nutrition into the nation's overall development plan; poor
intersectoral coordination, monitoring and evaluation; and insufficient budgetary
resources. Capacity to produce audiovisual aids and training materials, access to media
services and personnel development and exchange of scientists with other nations are
limited.
Employment and (lack of) income diversification
One of the more encouraging trends of recent years has been the rapid growth of the
rural non-farm economy which has expanded to being 40% of rural employment.
Income of the rural poor is thus diversifying although the ultra-poor have little access to
this non-farm economy.
Although most landless poor and marginal farmers are depending on wage labour for
their income, a lot of attention is paid to the promotion of Income Generating Activities
(IGAs). A number of surveys conducted provide evidence that the promotion of IGAs
can be successful to improve income (diversification) and food security. However, the
most vulnerable and underprivileged groups lack the basic requirements needed for
successful business activities. People that are either sick, disabled, or totally assetless are
not able to start an IGA.
Only the moderately poor, with agricultural land up to 0.5 acres have the necessary
means to participate in IGA programmes.
Growth and increased productivity in the agriculture sector alone will not be sufficient
to increase employment opportunities and IGAs for the poor. Sustained and increased
macro-economic growth will be necessary to create the breeding ground for additional
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employment and income opportunities for the poor in order to bring them out of
poverty and food insecurity. Therefore, development of the agriculture sector has to be
combined with the growth in other sectors. New technologies are to be developed and
introduced, not only by the private sector, but also from the government and NGOs.
Since prospects for additional employment in the agriculture sector are gloomy, new
potentials in the non-farm sector have to explored. In particular the rural service sector,
food processing industries, and the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector have
great potentials to create additional employment in rural areas.
Root causes of food insecurity
Institutional context
When looking for causes-behind-the-causes, the institutional context of Bangladesh
should be looked at. Formal and informal institutions can be distinguished, institutions
being defined as ‘the way things are done’.
Informal institutions that result in increased poverty are many, and below the most
important ones are summarized:
1.) The rural class relations, based on landholding and possession of other sets of key
natural resources such as water, fisheries, forests and orchards and the elite control over
these resources and over opportunities distributed by the state, such as agricultural
inputs, labour, through the imperfect markets of the private sector. The state has a
considerable monopoly over the allocation of resources and their distributional impacts,
inviting widespread corruption.
2.) Complex kin, lineage and caste structures which underpin a pervasive system of
patron-clientelism and, an increasing exclusion of the destitute poor from those
clientelist based forms of welfare and safety nets. This reflects the breakdown of family
or community based social protection and mutual support mechanisms;
In relation with the complex kin and caste structures, the strong reliance for all upon
networks, linkages, interlocked transactions (i.e. mainly vertical and non-transparent
forms of power and control) which define necessary behaviour. Extended families for
richer classes who can thereby spread network risk and maintain a wide range of quality
‘linkage’ options to operate in imperfect, non-transparent markets as well in their
dealings with the state;
This is contrasted to the narrower kin space and consequently less effective brokerage in
the market and state arenas among the poor: that is, the reverse of the preceding point
applies. To be 'poor in people' is a crucial element to understanding poverty and its
reproduction;
3.) A persistent cultural domination of women by men based on a patriarchal system in
society;
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4.) An intensification of competition for resources and flows of goods and services,
especially in the context of population growth and pressure on landholding;
Forms of inequality which are deep-rooted in the psychology of Bengali society and in
turn determine the real quality of human and legal rights. (Wood, 2000.)
Corruption
Corruption is all pervasive in Bangladesh. Major causes of corruption in Bangladesh,
among others, are:
poor socio-economic conditions;
poor service condition of the public sector including low incentive package, poor
opportunity for career advancement;
extensive discretionary power on the part of public officials with limited
accountability gives rise to corruption;
multiplicity of laws, rules etc. and weak enforcement of these laws often
encourages corruption;
key watchdog agencies lack adequate, well-trained and skilled staff to
undertake their responsibility in an appropriate manner;
existence of patron-client relationship reinforces corrupt practices in public
dealing;
absence of effective commitment to moral values at the top; and
lack of political will.
The poor are directly affected, as access to essential services such as education, health,
justice and individual safety has also become a function of the capacity to make
unauthorized payments. To have access to jobs, access to irrigation water, access to
health care, is difficult if people do not have the necessary means to buy their way
through these structures.
Education & lack of awareness about nutrition
Many poor, especially women and children, suffer from malnutrition simply because
they did not learn about the nutrients they need, and the type of food that provides
these nutrients. There is moreover a lack of awareness about the special needs of
children and pregnant or lactating women. Many people think for example that women
should eat less during their pregnancy in order to avoid a difficult delivery, i.e. the baby
would be too big for the mother to deliver. However, it is important to know which
types of malnutrition can be solved by nutrition education and which ones require
improvement in socioeconomic status. Instead of operating with the implicit assumption
that all nutritional problems can be solved through the development of effective
nutrition education messages, it should be identified which problems can be addressed
by nutrition education programmes.
Another point is, while people with knowledge of nutrition education are available for
activities, there are constraints including lack of strong political and administrative
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commitment; inadequate integration of nutrition into the nation's overall development
plan; poor intersectoral coordination, monitoring and evaluation; and insufficient
budgetary resources. Capacity to produce audiovisual aids and training materials,
access to media services and personnel development and exchange of scientists with
other nations are limited.
Open market economy, liberalization, privatisation, globalisation and their influence on food
security
Regarding positive impacts, it is mentioned in the Survey on Food Security and Hunger
in Bangladesh (RDRS, 2005) that technological intervention induced by globalisation
processes has helped the country to increase agricultural production. Recent
technological diffusion in agriculture has increased food production and food reserve in
the country which has reduced food insecurity. The rapid expansion of rural small
enterprises including poultry farms and fish culture is the indirect result of technological
innovation and it has created employment for the poor and women, giving them greater
access to food and other basic amenities.
Negative impacts of globalisation for farmers, women and marginal people, are reduced
access to resources and production, unemployment and decrease in income. Closing of
industries and privatisation of public enterprises in Bangladesh are mentioned as causes.
It is felt that the current globalisation process mostly favours the rich and industrialized
countries and a small section of the rich in poor countries. Globalisation has prospects,
but the process is to be changed to favour the poor and large marginal groups of people
in the developing countries. (RDRS, 2005).
Government policies towards food security
In the national food policy of 2006 the government describes its objectives and measures
to increase food security in all layers of the society. This is mostly focussed on access to
food, information on policies towards availability and utilisation of food are harder to
find.
To increase access for the ultra-poor the government will implement the following
programmes under the Public Food Distribution System (FDS):
1. direct distribution to households for emergency relief by the Ministry of food
and Disaster Management;
2. targeted distribution to disaster affected households through the Vulnerable
Group Feeding (VGF) programme for a reasonably longer post-disaster period;
3. distribution of foodgrain as wages in Food-for-work (FFW) programmes
managed by the Local Government Engineering Department, the Ministry of
Water Resources, the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management and others;
4. direct distribution of food to poor households participating in training and
development activities (as in the Vulnerable Group Development (VGD)
programme managed by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs); and
5. expansion and effective implementation of the social safety net for the ultra-poor
and the underprivileged population.
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With regard to the VGF and VGD it is mentioned in several publications that the
selection process is highly politicised and often the very poor do not receive food from
the existing government programmes.
Food policy aims to provide price guarantees for farmers and food for the needy, but
traditionally merely benefited the well-off. Significant reforms in the early 1990s greatly
improved targeting of the poor (of with the VGF and VGD are a result) but the
government systems remains very prone to corruption. Also Food Assistance Programs
(FAPs) are influenced and interfered by power elites resulting in fewer benefits for the
poor.
Another important topic needing improvement is the coordination across GoB and
development partners’ projects and programs so as to assist the GoB in integrating
major elements of its food security programs that are separated by ministerial and
development partner boundaries. Since these are large, multi-year programs, there are
likely to be large benefits from coordinating activities. There is also a need for
coordination with government offices at other than the national level. Local government
at district or thana level might be best-placed to decide how to best integrate activities
operationally in an overall national food security framework.
Specific groups affected
Indigenous people
There are more than 10 multi-lingual indigenous ethnic groups in the Chittagong Hill
Tracts (CHT), who identify themselves as ‘Jumma People’ (People of Highland). More
than 35 indigenous peoples groups are scattered in other parts of the country. The total
population of indigenous peoples (IPs) in Bangladesh is approximately 3 million, out of
which, 0.85 million live in CHT, which covers an area of 5,089 sq.miles or 13,295 sq. km.
The IPs in Mymensingh and Sylhet and other parts of Bangladesh have become absolute
minority in their own lands. Presently they are scattered and are ruled under general
arrangement. The Bangladesh Constitution recognizes the existence of IPs and their
rights over their lands and natural resources. At the same time the Government of
Bangladesh seems to deny the existence of any IPs in the country. As such, positive
policies for the protection of IP rights are not likely. As a consequence, IP rights on land
and natural resources have been violated, threatening the existence of their ethnic
identity. This as well extremely affected their situation with respect to education, health
and food security. Various government programmes such as the VGF and VGD
programmes are not implemented in the areas inhabited by indigenous people, and they
are unaware of these programmes. The relatively high percentage of households taking
a loan for food in the CHT, the low income and the low percentage of households
practicing home gardening suggest that households have significant greater difficulty in
accessing food, particularly micronutrient-rich foods, than households in rural
Bangladesh.
There is a lack of information on the CHT, party due to the difficult and hilly terrain, the
isolated location, the language barrier and the pockets of insecurity, but as well because
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of the attitude of the GoB towards the IPs. All of this has led to a lack of education, lack
of nutrition awareness and lower food security.
Women
Food security, results from the availability of adequate food at country level, household
and individual access to adequate and nutritious food, effective consumption and
adequate nutrition outcomes. As such, it is intricately linked with a woman’s multiple
roles expressed in her productive, reproductive and caring functions.
A serious constraint for women (farmers) is their lack of access to security of tenure or
ownership of land. As Agarwal (2002) notes ‘In agrarian economies, arable land is the
most valued form of property and productive resource. It is a wealth creating and
livelihood-sustaining asset. For a significant majority of rural households, it is the single
most important source of security against poverty’. Bangladesh falls in the male farming
system category and is part of the belt of classic patriarchy characterized by extreme
forms of gender discrimination (Ramachandran, 2006). This includes the right to
ownership of land. This is partly based on Muslim Law, and under all religious laws,
women have a lesser share than men. Under Muslim law, a daughter inherits one-half
the share of her brother, a wife can claim one-eighth of the property, while a mother gets
one-sixth.
Why is ownership of land so essential for women farmers? The rapid feminisation of
agriculture has thrown into prominence the issue of land rights for women.
Increasing migration by males from rural to urban areas in search of livelihoods has
followed the fragmentation of land holdings, lack of wage opportunities in rural areas
and deepening poverty. What is often overlooked in policy formulation is the increasing
number of de facto woman heads of households struggling to manage a livelihood and
ensure the food security of their families without access to credit, technology or
extension services. Denied security of tenure, they lack the collateral required for credit
or the social status to deal with extension workers on an equal basis. Their needs tend to
be ignored, even in agricultural research and technological innovations.
It is by now also widely accepted that gender inequality is not only extra-household but
as well intra-household. Not only do intra-household power equations serve to keep
women unempowered and subservient, but also directly impact on their individual food
and nutrition security and indirectly on that of other family members, particularly
children. Within the context of household dynamics, food security is related to decisions
regarding responsibility for food production, earning cash income for food purchases,
purchasing and preparing food and finally, actual access to food in terms of
consumption. In Ramachandran (2006) it is mentioned that women are quite literally a
residual category in intra-household food distribution, eating after men and children
and making do with what is left. This deprivation is partly self-imposed and is handed
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on from generation to generation. Even pregnant women are caught up in the cycle of
self-denial and food deprivation.
Indigenous women
Indigenous women and children are an even more vulnerable group, compared to other
IPs. The prevalence of chronic energy deficiency among mothers is serious, and the
prevalence of underweight and stunting in children is very high. Household food
insecurity, grossly inadequate water and sanitation facilities and a wide gender
disparity in education are also serious concerns.
Indigenous women are extra vulnerable in two ways. First of all because they are
women, they face gender-based discrimination, as described in the previous section.
Secondly, they face ethnic discrimination as well, because of their indigenous heritage.
The institutional systems used by indigenous people are not acknowledged by dominant
societal groups and thus they lack the capacity to make decisions. Women in that
context are even more disempowered. The remoteness of the areas where indigenous
women often live makes them even more vulnerable in receiving necessary health care
and support. Low literacy rates and low level of education among indigenous peoples as
well as their remote location limit their knowledge and exercise of their rights.
Mothers & children
Nearly half of all mothers in rural Bangladesh are undernourished according to data
collected by the Nutritional Surveillance Project (NSP), and nearly one third of mothers
in urban slums). Surveys in 2000 showed that 45% of rural mothers had a low body mass
index, a prevalence that is amongst the highest in recent surveys in Asia and indicates
‘critical’ food insecurity. This high prevalence is clear evidence that many mothers still
do not get enough food to eat even though the country is nearly self-sufficient in rice
production
Options for linking and learning, identification of relevant institutes
UN agencies:
FAO: Have a special programme on food security (SPFS) in Bangladesh, with a number
of activities http://www.fao.org/SPFS/bangladesh/contacts_en.asp
WFP: The world food programme is in Bangladesh involved in the Vulnerable Group
Development, Integrated Food Security and school feeding.
http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/indexcountry.asp?region=5§ion=9&sub_section=
5&country=050
UNICEF: Working on arsenic contamination of groundwater through tubewell testing
and awareness raising, and women and children’s health and nutrition.
www.unicef.org/bangladesh
WHO (World Health Organisation): programmes are targeted at strengthening of
nutrition education, food safety, promotion of occupational health, and water supply
and sanitation. http://www.who.int/countries/bgd/en/
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UNDP: working on participatory local governance and pro-poor economic policy
development. http://www.un-bd.org/undp/
Government organizations:
Department of Agricultural Extension in the Ministry of Agriculture;
http://www.dae.gov.bd/; Working with farmers on improved production, farm
techniques, self reliance and cooperation
BARC: The Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) is the apex body of the
National Agricultural Research System (NARS). http://www.barc.gov.bd/; The Council
serves as the national coordinating organization for planning, integration, and
implementation of research on crops, livestock, soil, water, crop protection, agricultural
engineering, forestry, fisheries, economics and social science.
Food Production and Monitoring Unit of the Directorate of Food (Ministry of Food);
http://www.mofdm.gov.bd/
Ministry of Women's Affairs; http://www.mwca.gov.bd/index.htm working on early
childhood development, agricultural training for women, skill development training etc.
National Nutrition Council in the Ministry of Health,
Local Government Engineering Dept. www.lged.gov.bd working on rural infrastructure
development under the ministry of local government, rural development and co-
operatives.
Ministry of Health and the Institute of Public Health Nutrition (IPHN). The latter has
done a lot of work together with Unicef and the Helen Keller institute.
Bilateral donors
Australia: provides food aid to Bangladesh to the poorest people, particularly women
and children. Bangladesh uses Australian wheat for the Vulnerable Group
Development, Integrated Food Security and School Feeding programs. Programs
support community-based interventions improving nutrition, disaster preparedness,
literacy and numeracy training and income generation.
http://www.ausaid.gov.au/country/country.cfm?CountryID=10&Region=SouthAsia
Netherlands: Primary Health Care, (including nutrition and population welfare) and
Basic Education, as well as Integrated Water Resources Management, (IWRM).
USAID: distributes food through the Food for Work programme and supports the
international maize and wheat development centre.
http://www.usaid.gov/bd/food_response.html
UK (DFID): is one of the largest bilateral donors to Bangladesh, and working on:
primary education, health care, water and sanitation and livelihoods of the poorest.
European Union: working on food security through a.o. Vulnerable Group
Development, Integrated pest management, and sustainable income uplift.
Japan (JICA): focussing on pro-poor economic development, health and nutrition,
including arsenic contamination.
Civil society
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Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB): Association of
Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB) is the national apex organization of the
local, national and international non-government organizations (NGOs) working in
Bangladesh. This is a relevant organisation when looking for contacts on the issue of
food security.
Helen Keller International: involved in the nutritional surveillance project in Bangladesh
until 2004 and a good information source http://www.hki.org/network/Bangladesh.html
CARE Bangladesh: Working on food security through Food Security for Sustainable
Household Livelihoods (FoSHoL) in NorthWestern Bangladesh, one of the poorest
regions and together with UNDP CHTDF's Support to Basic Education in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Bangladesh Rural Advancement committee (BRAC): the largest NGO of Bangladesh
works on education, health and economic development. www.brac.net
Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) focussing a.o. on natural resources
management and poverty reduction strategies. www.bcas.net
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies studies a wide variety of relevant topics, a
few: female headed households, functioning of the rural labor markets, evaluation of the
Food for Education programme. http://www.bids-bd.org/research_themes.htm
European Food Security Network RESAL
http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/projects/resal/ implemented through GOPA
consultants.
IFPRI Bangladesh: large amount of relevant information on food security and policies,
and interesting research on gender and intrahousehold aspects of food policy
http://www.ifpri.org/country/bangladesh.asp
International Water Management Institute: food security from a land and water
management perspective
http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/rthemes/LandWaterLivelihoods/index.asp
CGIAR Challenge program on water and food: The programme brings together research
scientists, development specialists, and river basin communities in Asia to create and
disseminate international public goods (IPGs) that improve the productivity of water in
river basins (including the Indo-Gangetic basin) in ways that are pro-poor, gender
equitable and environmentally sustainable.
http://www.waterandfood.org/index.php?id=66
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Options for improvement of the food security situation
Most of the causes for food insecurity are on a more fundamental level than what a person
sees at sight. These root causes take a long time to change. The question is how, over time,
can agents and socio-economic processes be strengthened that will pressure a change in
policy, institutional reform and investments. Below a few starting points for long-term
changes are mentioned, followed by solutions for the short run.
Institutional change & corruption
While there are deep seated difficulties that have to be dealt with when trying to improve the
performance of the government, there are some starting points:
Providing stronger links with international norms and standards for political
accountability and effectiveness.
Supporting the demand side: for the private sector, public opinion and civil society
organisations to become better informed and more assertive in calling the
government to account.
Advocacy: support NGOs engaged in human rights work (especially women’s
rights), good governance and environmental issues.
Strengthen the private sector. Increased support of small and medium enterprises,
which have contributed to rising and diversifying livelihoods of the rural poor.
Another important topic needing improvement is the coordination across GoB and
development partners’ projects and programs so as to assist the GoB in integrating
major elements of its food security programs that are separated by ministerial and
development partner boundaries. Since these are large, multi-year programs, there
are likely to be large benefits from coordinating activities.
There is also a need for coordination with government offices at other than the
national level. Local government at district or thana level might be best-placed to
decide how to best integrate activities operationally in an overall national food
security framework.
Trade liberalization and open market economy
Bangladesh should strive together with other developing countries for the inclusion of a
multilateral agreement against hunger, as is described in Sharma (2005). This should be
based on the guiding principle of the right to food and should form the basis for all future
negotiations. This would ensure that countries have the right to take adequate measures if
their commitment towards the WTO obligations leads to more poverty and hunger. Also, as
the agricultural subsidies are not being phased out the developing countries need an
immediate protection from the flood of cheap imports. This would safeguard agriculture and
food security.
Globalisation has prospects, but the process is to be changed to favour the poor and large
marginal groups of people in the developing countries. (RDRS, 2005).
Education for women and children
Education is a very powerful tool for development. Especially education for groups that
systematically discriminated, such as women and minority groups. Education will increase
their knowledge and assertiveness with regard to their rights.
Households, wherein women have access to their own incomes and can exercise decision
making powers, tend to have an expenditure pattern different to the one existing in male
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dominated households. Research has found that improvements in household food security
and nutrition are associated with women’s access to income and their role in household
decisions on expenditure. This is because women tend to spend a significantly higher
proportion of their income than men on food for the family. This has led many policymakers
and donors to conclude that women should be targeted for credit and small enterprise
programmes not only because their income boosts household income, but also because it
meets global societal objectives such as increased spending on food and children’s goods.
(Ramachandran, 2006).
Policies and programs to improve the quality and quantity of mothers’ diets are also
essential. To increase food security for mothers and children, skill training in homestead
gardening and income-generating activities are necessary.
Improved education – of boys as well as girls- is essential so that the root causes of
discrimination can be addressed, scholarships and school feeding programmes therefore
play a doubly valuable role in improving food security.
Some practical ideas for the improvement of education, learned from BRAC (UNESCO 2001)
can be found in Annex 1.
Nutrition education
In terms of food utilization education is necessary as well. In certain ways traditional food
habits in Bangladesh are very positive, such as for example the use of parboiled rice, but
poor sanitation and hygiene contribute to nutrient loss through diarrhoeal disease. Also
ignorance of the special nutritional needs of children and pregnant and lactating women is
widespread (Gill, 2003).
Technical assistance is required for provision of training inputs, equipment, transport and
maintenance. Personnel development facilities are also needed, especially for advanced
training and education. Increased facilities are needed for infrastructure development
(Tontisirin 1994).
Diet diversification
This is arguably the most sustainable and affordable strategy to improve nutrition for the
majority of the population -- particularly the poor. For poor households, vegetables and
fruits are often the only source of micronutrients in the family diet. Homestead production of
fruits and vegetables provides the household with direct access to important nutrients that
may not be readily available or within their economic reach. Therefore, home gardening
would be a good means to improve household food security. Equally important, home
gardening has been shown to be a source of additional income, because the household can
sell a portion of the garden’s produce. Studies suggest that this additional income is
generally utilized to purchase supplementary food items, further increasing the
diversification of the family’s diet (Talukder 2000).
Minority groups
If interventions are to have their intended goals in regions with minorities, they must be
sensitive to the special needs and problems of this region, including the unique sociocultural
characteristics of each ethnic group and the difficulties in delivering services to a remote and
widely dispersed population.
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Natural resources management
Natural resources management is multi-dimensional, multi-sectoral, and multi-institutional,
involving multiple stakeholders. These components are interacting and need an institutional
framework that identifies inter-linkages, flow of information and integrates the technical,
environmental and social dimensions. Under such a framework solutions water resources
management solutions can be explored that take into account droughts, floods, the role of
fisheries, salinisation problems and land degradation in an integrated manner.
Under such a framework the following more practical NRM solutions could be explored.
Reducing crop damage
Reducing crop damage in kharif season can be done through regulation of flow of excess
water over the vast area of the country’s flood plain. Effective measures towards this would
reduce flood levels, which in turn would create conditions for replacing varieties with low
yield potential by varieties with higher yield potential. Reduced damage and increased
proportion of varieties with higher yield potential can make a substantial contribution
towards increasing rice production – a primary condition towards attaining food security.
At the same time it would be interesting to research if groundwater is recharged at the same
time.
Irrigation: use of treadle pumps to decrease costs
Left aside that a farmer needs access to land and irrigation water, he can drastically reduce
production cost by using a treadle pump. The treadle pump is a low-lift, high-capacity,
human-powered pump. The treadle pump can lift five to seven cubic meters of water per
hour from wells and boreholes up to seven meters deep as well as from surface water
sources such as lakes and rivers.
The treadle pump has significant advantages over motorized pumps for irrigation of
agricultural land of less than one hectare. It is truly a pro-poor device.
It is cheap, with a cost of about $12–30, easy to install, operate, and maintain, and has no fuel
costs. It has higher output than a hand pump and other manual devices. Treadle pump use
results in increased land use intensity, and average yield tends to be higher than yields
obtained by farmers using diesel pumps or other manual devices. The income impact of the
treadle pump varies across households and regions, with an average increase of $100 per
year in net annual income. A study of the International Water Management Institute
indicates that the “treadle pump technology has the potential to increase the net annual
income of South Asia’s poorest rural households by one billion dollars” (Shah, 2000).
Arsenic contamination of groundwater/ drinking water
Only a few proven sustainable options are available to provide safe drinking-water in
Bangladesh. These include: obtaining low-arsenic groundwater through accessing safe
shallow groundwater or deeper aquifers (greater than 200 m); rain water harvesting; pond-
sand-filtration; household chemical treatment; and piped water supply from safe or treated
sources. For the treatment of skin lesions the diet of the patient makes a lot of difference.
Endemic malnutrition makes the Bangladeshi population more vulnerable to the effects of
arsenic contamination. Specifically, a vitamin A (found in green vegetables and dairy)
deficiency is common in Bangladesh. This vitamin is necessary for skin regeneration and a
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deficiency quickens the effect of arsenic contamination. This needs extra attention in
nutrition education.
Khasland
The Association for Land Reforms and Development (ALRD) indicates that the estimated
amount of total identified khasland (government lands or common property) in Bangladesh
is 3.3 million acres of which 0.8 million is agricultural land, 1.7 million acres of non-
agricultural land and 0.8 million acres of khas waterbodies. Equal distribution would result
in 1.52 acres land and water bodies per landless household. Of the agricultural khasland, the
government claims that 44% is already distributed among the poor, but 56% of this land
could not be retained by the people as local influential people were standing in their way. To
achieve a situation where khasland is being used by landless people, the following actions
are proposed (RDRS, 2005):
Campaign at national level to ensure land rights
Creation of functional advocacy network for those who are struggling for khaslands
Supportive activities to maintain possession of khaslands
Facilitate proper information on khasland and application process
Public awareness on constitutional rights of landless people
Acquire khasland from vested interest group
Rehabilitation of degraded land through livestock
Where land has become severely degraded, livestock can play a role in the rehabilitation of
that land. As degraded land is being rehabilitated, it can be grazed at low intensity for weed
control, thereby serving three purposes: (1) it provides food for the livestock; (2) their
cropping of weeds preserves soil moisture; and (3) livestock dung contributes to soil fertility
during the rehabilitation. This would be a solution for the problem of providing food for
cattle, and land would be rehabilitated.
Food assistance and income diversification for the poorest
NGOs social programmes are often bypassing the ultra-poor, as these people have so little
means that they are not able to participate in NGO programmes for income diversification.
Even though the rural non-farm economy is booming, this group cannot access these new
livelihood opportunities. Active and urgent interventions are required to solve this problem.
The government of Bangladesh should continue and enhance the existing Food Assistance
Programmes for old people, disabled, women and socially excluded people. It would be
worthwhile for this category to start social rehabilitation programmes including skill
development, capacity building, health programmes and special micro-credit programmes
taking into account the capacities and limitations of this ultra-poor group. The government
could also introduce local food banks for the ultra poor, in cooperation with local NGOs.
(RDRS, 2005) An important aspect is that the ultra poor need to be provided with welfare
and safety nets by strengthening the family and community based social protection
mechanisms so that they are not excluded and less dependent on vertical power relations.
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INDIA
Background
It is estimated that one-third of the world’s poor live in India. Even official data indicates
that every second child is moderately or severely malnourished. India is classified by FAO as
a low-income, food deficit country and has the largest number of poor, food-insecure people
in the world. About 360 million people consume less than 80 percent of minimum energy
requirements. Vulnerable sections of the population are women across income groups,
children, the rural landless poor and dwellers in forest and hill areas. Malnutrition in urban
areas is also high.
In 1950-51 the total food grain production in India was around 51 million tons, which
increased to 191 million tons in 1994-95. While in the 1950's production grew due to
increased crop area, from the mid-1960 the ‘Green Revolution' in rice and wheat led to
productivity increases in irrigated areas. However, this increase in food grains and self-
sufficiency in food production at the national level has not led to eradication of malnutrition
and starvation in various parts of the country. Different degrees of chronic and endemic
hunger remain, which, in the prevailing patterns of intra-household food distribution
particularly in rural families, endangers the nutritional status of women and children.
Food insecurity in India can best be described as chronic rather than acute, with 233 million
(1998–2000) undernourished in calorific and micronutrient terms (against 215 million in
1990–2). Under-nourishment is severe among scheduled castes and in those rural areas
weakly integrated into markets, and has marked seasonal patterns. The situation confronting
the malnourished differs between rural and urban settings.
When it comes to food grain production, India is a very rich country. 70% of its population
depend on agriculture. India’s food grain reserves are at a constant high level and contain
around 50 millions tons of food grains. This is far more than it needs to feed the entire
population, including those who are starving and malnourished. The Government of India
has made international commitments and designed different Government welfare schemes
to ensure people’s access to food. Yet, in spite of this, the poor and deprived communities in
India are continuously struggling for survival.
Who are the hungry?
From the BfdW study on Hunger in India (2006) it can be derived that the states of Bihar,
Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh show up as the most food insecure. These states depict high
percentage of population below the poverty line, high level of scheduled caste and scheduled
tribe population, high percentage of illiteracy, households without electricity and without
access to safe drinking water. The states which are the next in terms of being severely
insecure are Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa. The six states of Andhra Pradesh,
Assam, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka and Haryana fall under the third typology or
the middle category. Assam, Maharashtra and West Bengal are food deficit areas. All these
states are prone to natural disasters like floods, cyclones, droughts, or a combination of all –
and thus face the problem of risky agriculture.
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Primary causes of food security in India
Natural resources management
Water resources management
Irrigation will continue to play an unquestionable role in achieving food self sufficiency,
creating grain surpluses, stabilizing food prices, sustaining agricultural growth, absorbing
labour force in rural areas, and alleviating rural poverty; all of which are vital for food
security. Given India’s food security policy of self sufficiency, there is a growing need to
manage water for agriculture. The future water supplies are going to fall short of the
demand from different sectors, with a differential negative impact on agriculture, if India
continues to follow the same trajectory of water resource development and water use as in
the past. Given the political economy of growth based on urbanization and industrialization,
there will be a greater pressure to allocate an increasing amount of water for industrial and
municipal uses. The problems would be acute in semi-arid Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan
and Maharashtra, which also experience ever increasing demand for water in all sectors.
The increasing resource degradation problems such as groundwater depletion, water
logging, salinity, and land degradation would add to the challenges. Regions such as
Gujarat, which face groundwater depletion problems, land degradation, and frequent
droughts are highly food insecure. On the other hand, in regions like Bihar and Orissa, low
agricultural productivity and output, and high poverty rates leave millions, especially those
in rural areas, undernourished. Managing water for food security needs a multi-level
approach. At the aggregate level, the irrigation water supplies and the demand for irrigation
need to be balanced. This offers two challenges: water supply management and judicious
inter-sectoral water allocation. At the next level, greater equity needs to be ensured in
accessing and controlling water from aquifers and public systems. At the third level, farmers
should maximize production from available land and water resources with the least
environmental consequences such as land degradation and groundwater depletion, through
efficient resource use.
The existing water resource development technologies have a great bias towards the rich. In
water abundant regions such as Bihar and Orissa, the poor still depend on the water for
irrigation, purchased at prohibitive prices. Under the current pricing system for electricity in
the farm sector, the conventional water saving technologies favour the rich with greater
opportunities. Emerging technologies such as the treadle pump can, not only change the
trajectory of water resource development, but also increase the ability of the poor in water
rich regions to invest in irrigation, boost productivity and production, and effect food
security. Micro-irrigation technologies can greatly enhance the ability of the poor to
maximise production from limited water supplies they have access to. Integrated land and
water management practices such as organic farming and agronomical activities would be
the key to enhancing land and water use productivity on a sustainable basis; but small and
marginal holders would face severe constraints in adopting them. Subsidies are needed for
poor farmers to adopt technologies that would reduce their dependence on biomass, increase
biomass use efficiency, and invest in integrated land and water management techniques to
improve land and water use productivity.
Drinking water
The availability of protected drinking water sources has improved significantly over the past
few years. The current priority is to maintain water systems, monitor and regulate water
quality and ensure sustainability of sources. One particular concern is to ensure that
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marginalized groups, especially women and the poor, participate in decisions about, and
benefit from, improved water supplies and sanitation services.
Protecting drinking water from faecal contamination remains a major challenge because of a
widespread lack of sanitation. One strategy is to protect vulnerable water sources by
maintaining platforms and drainage around hand-pumps. The most effective solution is to
focus on home hygiene practices, including propagating the sanitary use of toilets and
washing hands with soap or ash.
Droughts
The principal cause of drought may be attributed to the erratic behaviour of the monsoon.
The southwest monsoon, or 'summer monsoon' as it is called, has a stranglehold on
agriculture, the Indian economy and, consequently, the livelihoods of a vast majority of the
rural population. The southwest monsoon denotes the rainfall received between the months
of June and September and accounts for around 74% of the country's rainfall. The coastal
areas of India also receive rain from October to December due to periodic cyclonic
disturbances in the Bay of Bengal (the north-east monsoon, or post-monsoon system). While
erratic monsoons and drought are intertwined, a host of other reasons, mostly manmade,
aggravate drought or create drought-like situations in the country. India, after all, is well-
endowed in terms of rainfall, with Cherrapunji receiving an annual rainfall of around 11,000
mm. Even Saurashtra and the Kutch region record rainfall of around 578 mm. India's average
rainfall is around 1,170 mm – yet the country suffers recurrent drought.
Over the past decades, individuals, communities and the government have all pursued
water management strategies leading to the water scarcity situation we face today. Reckless
over-exploitation of surface and groundwater, for instance, has been one area of deep
concern.
India has seen a sharp decline in groundwater levels, leading to a fall in supply, saline water
encroachment and the drying of springs and shallow aquifers. Around 50% of the total
irrigated area in the country is now dependent on groundwater, and 60% of irrigated food
production depends on irrigation from groundwater wells.
In some regions – north Gujarat, southern Rajasthan, Saurashtra, Coimbatore and Madurai
districts in Tamil Nadu, the Kolar district in Karnataka, the whole of Rayalseema in Andhra
Pradesh and parts of Punjab and Haryana – the decline in water levels due to
overexploitation has been to the extent of 1-2 metres/year. Studies have revealed that
declining water levels could lead to a 25% drop in harvests in the near future (PACS 2004).
Currently, over 10% of blocks classified by the Central Ground Water Board have been
identified as 'overexploited'; blocks where the exploitation is beyond the critical level have
been growing at a rate of 5.5% every year (PACS 2004). It is estimated that 36% of blocks in
the country will be on the critical list by the year 2017. Punjab alone – the hub of the Green
Revolution – with over a million tube wells has been sucking up groundwater resources
relentlessly. Over 61% of the hydro geological blocks in Punjab are categorised as
overexploited; 10% fall in the zone where recharge is just about equivalent to groundwater
extraction.
As the crisis looms large, Punjab has been endeavouring to move away from 'thirsty' crops
like paddy to cash crops that do not necessitate the plunder of water resources. In
Maharashtra, western parts of the state continue growing sugarcane even as large parts of
the area fall within the drought-prone zone.
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The rapid depletion of forest cover is also seen as one of the reasons for water stress and
drought. India has a forest cover of 76 million hectares, or 23% of its total geographical area.
Forest-water linkages are widely acknowledged, especially the watershed functions of
forests, reduced soil erosion, flood and landslide control, and maintenance of a base flow to
downstream areas.
Most major droughts in India have been followed by recession. The 1990s, however, reveal a
different picture, unlike in the '50s when a decline in agriculture had a significant bearing on
both industrial and overall GDP. Natural disasters do not affect the Indian economy as much
as they once did. Drought-related shocks and their adverse effect on the economy were
limited to a mere 1% of GDP in 2002-03. This can be explained by the fact that the share of
agriculture in national income has gradually declined over the decades – from 57% in 1961 to
22% in 2002.
Another reason why the economy was insulated against the impact of drought was the fact
that the country has apparently developed the ability to finance drought relief operations
without diverting resources from public investment expenditure in productive sectors. Relief
operations have also been largely able to retain the purchasing capacity of the rural
population.
However, the poor and marginalized in the rural hinterland, bereft of productive land and
starved of food and water, still reel under the effects of drought in an imperfect and corrupt
relief system.
Groundwater depletion
Groundwater use is now so extensive that it can no longer be overlooked. Supplying 27
million hectares of farmland, groundwater now irrigates a larger total area than surface
water (21 million hectares). This means it sustains almost 60% of the country’s irrigated land.
On a local level, an increasing number of districts today have larger shares of irrigated land
under groundwater irrigation than under surface-water irrigation.
This change in usage in India has been extremely rapid since the 1970s. In just two decades,
the groundwater irrigated lands in India have increased by 105%. In contrast, the areas of
surface-water irrigated land rose by only 28% over the same period (1970-1994). This change
was most striking in northern India—the heart of the Green Revolution.
Analysis shows that the contribution made by groundwater to the agricultural economy of
India has grown steadily since the early 1970s. Groundwater now creates more agricultural
wealth than any other irrigation source. Groundwater-associated agricultural output did not
rise at this phenomenal rate simply because the area under groundwater irrigation
expanded. Groundwater is actually more productive (producing more crops per hectare)
than surface water. This is because farmers who use groundwater can get as much water as
they need, when and where they want it. And, knowing that their crops will not fail because
of drought, farmers invest more in high-yielding seed varieties, fertilizers and pest control.
This leads to higher yields.
What’s more, in groundwater irrigation, crop production is higher per unit of water used
than it is in surface-water irrigation. This is because it costs farmers money to pump
groundwater. So, they use it sparingly and efficiently, timing their irrigation carefully.
In relation to the amount of land they cultivate, poor farmers are better represented than
richer farmers in their use of groundwater. Small and marginal farms (less than 2 hectares)
make up only 29% of the total agricultural area. Yet these small farms account for 38% of the
net area irrigated by wells and 35% of the tube wells fitted with electric pump sets.
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Proportionally more of the large increase we have seen in agricultural outputs—due to
groundwater use—goes directly into the stomachs and pockets of the poor.
In fact, groundwater irrigation is inherently less biased against the poor than large dams and
large-scale surface water irrigation projects. It can create democratic access to water for all,
particularly for small farmers not able to benefit from water in the canal irrigation schemes.
Groundwater irrigation is a potentially effective vehicle for poverty eradication.
This is, however, contradictory to what has been mentioned earlier in the paragraph on
water resources management. There it was suggested that water resource development
technologies have a great bias towards the rich. A farmer needs to have a certain level of
welfare before he or she can afford him or herself an electric pump. Ultra poor are excluded
from this technology.
Rainfed agriculture
From the previous section it is well recognized that the future agricultural growth should
come more and more from the dry land areas and less from irrigation. This calls for
concerted and focused efforts to develop the neglected rain fed agricultural areas, which also
hold the bulk of the poor and the hungry. (CEC 2007).
Homestead and kitchen gardening
Landownership
In rural India, the access to and tenure rights of “cultivable” land are key endowments of the
poor to fight hunger. In the study on Hunger in India (2006), about 42 per cent of the
researched households do not own cultivable land. Another 43 per cent owned less than
three acres of land.
Land, though an endowment, is not sufficient to rescue the poor out of hunger, if other
entitlement factors are not congenial. Lack of proper irrigation facilities, knowledge about
alternative use and inability of the poor households to meet the expenses of cultivation,
makes land holdings ineffective, to a large extent, in reducing poverty and hunger in the
areas. Nevertheless, land is an important endowment of the poor;
It is important to note that out of the total landless households in the study 60 per cent are
Dalits and 31 per cent are Adivasis. Landlessness for them is a deprivation. Although there
are other landless categories in the study, they are found to be economically better-off
compared to the Dalits and Adivasis. Again, it is found that very few among the Dalits and
Adivasis have reported land holdings beyond 5-7 acres. (John, 2006)
Employment guarantee act
India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), guarantees 100 days of
employment per year to every rural household. The Act, launched in February 2006, has
come into force in 200 districts of the country.
The NREGA is an important step towards realisation of the right to work. It is expected to
enhance people’s livelihood security on a sustained basis, by developing economic and social
infrastructure in rural areas. One of the most distinguishing features of the NREGA is its
approach towards empowering citizens to play an active role in the implementation of
employment guarantee schemes, through gram sabhas, social audit, participatory planning
and other activities.
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The key features are:
Any adult who is willing to do unskilled manual work, at the minimum wage is entitled to
being employed on public works within 15 days of applying. If work is not provided within
15 days, he/she is entitled to an unemployment allowance.
At the panchayat level there are several institutional hurdles for the NREGA to work well.
Some of the panchayat-level issues are as follows:
Unequal distribution of funds to the districts. This leads to lack of funds at the
panchayat level, making payment for activities undertaken in the scheme difficult.
The top-down approach in planning is adversely affecting the functioning of
panchayats.
There is inadequate flexibility in the guidelines to address local issues.
Panchayats face problems in getting technical clearance for works to be undertaken.
They also get inadequate support in developing sound technical estimates of civil
works.
Also, there is a general tendency to keep spending low through a combination of measures
that violate the NREGA in letter and spirit. This is through low coverage of the eligible
population in notified districts, unfulfilled entitlements even of the registered population,
inadequate administrative capabilities and little effort to overcome deficiencies in
manpower, skills and training.
Furthermore, there are forces at work which result in making women's work invisible
through a focus on productivity-linked earth works and high productivity requirements. The
urge to save costs and make additional assets by exploiting existing gender biases that
already invisibilise women's work and pay her less/nothing for her labour is the most
important underlying factor behind the continued clubbing together of easily divisible tasks
and low payment. In a sense, women’s labour at public worksites gets treated almost in the
same way as women’s work in the household. Unfortunately, administrative laziness has
exacerbated this situation further whereby difficulty in computing women’s work has
resulted in not being recognized as independent work.
Income diversification
The study on Hunger in India (John, 2006) shows that having access to alternative
employment opportunities in nearby urban areas, decreases the dependence for livelihood
on the agrarian sector. Those with relatively higher incomes belong to the self-employed
category and this suggests that a regular income for the self-employed workers has acted as
an important catalyst towards raising their economic capacity.
A lot of attention is paid in development programs to the promotion of Income Generating
Activities (IGAs). A number of surveys conducted provide evidence that the promotion of
IGAs can be successful to improve income (diversification) and food security. However, the
most vulnerable and underprivileged groups lack the basic requirements needed for
successful business activities. People that are either sick, disabled, or totally assetless are not
able to start an IGA. These people need different attention.
Only the moderately poor, with agricultural land up to 0.5 acres have the necessary means to
participate in IGA programmes.
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There are many sub-sectors which have potential for generating rural non-farm employment
in India. The sub-sectors in India are, amongst others: oilseed processing, fruit and vegetable
processing, leather products, stone quarrying and polishing, business services, prawn
processing, textile garments, and agro-services.
Weaknesses that hinder the development of rural non-farm employment are the following:
1. Infrastructure. A significant bottleneck in generating higher levels of rural non-farm
activity in India is the quantity, quality and reliability of infrastructure. For example,
the recent World Bank Investment Climate Survey for India indicates that power
outages were one of the most serious obstacles to the development of the non-farm
sector (Mukherjee 2005). Although corrective steps are now being taken, increased
infrastructure remains the most important priority for the future.
2. Regulatory restrictions on small-scale sector. Regulation of the small-scale sector
constitutes an important aspect of non-farm development policy in India. In the
initial stages, capital investment restrictions were imposed to protect the small-scale
sector, especially in rural areas, from predation by large industry. Reservation of
products for the sector was initiated to create a domestic market and quantitative
restrictions imposed to protect them from competition from imports. At the end of
the 1990s, however, these very policies become detrimental to the dynamism of the
small-scale sector, especially in the rural areas. Capital investment limits have
discouraged economies of scale, and concessions offered to small industry have
created adverse incentives against re-investment. Several official reports have
recommended a substantial increase in the capital investment limit (from the present
level of around $200,000) to make better use of technology and improve productivity
(Mukherjee 2005). However, no such policy announcement has been made as yet.
3. Quality of Manpower. High levels of illiteracy in rural India have hampered the
growth of the rural non-farm sector. As is recognized, education has both intrinsic
and instrumental value (Sen, 1999). Apart from having a positive correlation with
wages, a minimum basic standard of education is necessary to apply for credit, to be
aware of one’s rights and responsibilities and to deal with instances of corruption and
malpractice. Together with lack of technical skills, there is little incentive for rural
firms to invest in technology, leading to low levels of labour productivity in the rural
manufacturing sector compared to urban manufacturing (Mukherjee 2005). The same
is true of the service sector as well, which has the potential for expansion given the
already strong base in the urban economy. Higher investment to improve both the
quality and the access to education – primary, secondary and above – needs to be a
priority for policymakers.
Health
Malnutrition
Preventing under-nutrition has emerged as one of the most critical challenges to India’s
development planners in recent times. Despite substantial improvement in health and well-
being since the country's independence in 1947, under-nutrition remains a silent emergency
in India, where almost half of all children under the age of three are underweight, 30 percent
of newborns born with low birth weight, and 52 percent of women and 74 percent of
children are anaemic. Other major nutritional deficiencies of public health importance in the
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country are Vitamin A deficiency and iodine deficiency.
General under-nutrition, characterized by under-weight among children is more prevalent
amongst rural children, scheduled castes and tribes, and amongst children with illiterate
mothers. The contributing factors for under-nutrition are household food insecurity and
intra-household food distribution, imbalanced diet, inadequate preventative and curative
health services, and insufficient knowledge of proper care and infant feeding practices.
Malnutrition amongst women is one of the prime causes of low birth-weight babies and poor
growth. Low birth weight is a significant contributor to infant mortality. Moreover, low
birth-weight babies who survive are likely to suffer growth retardation and illness
throughout their childhood, adolescence and into adulthood, and growth-retarded adult
women are likely to carry on the vicious cycle of malnutrition by giving birth to low birth-
weight babies (John 2006).
Diarrhoea and unsafe drinking water
Despite the Government’s efforts, diarrhoea remains the major cause of death amongst
children in India, second after respiratory- tract infections. Unhygienic practices and unsafe
drinking water are some of its main causes. More than 122 million households in the country
are without toilets. Even though toilets are built in about 3 million households every year,
the annual rate of increase has been a low 1 per cent in the past decade.
Access to protected sources of drinking water has improved dramatically over the years.
Most rural water supply systems, especially the hand-pumps generally used by the poor, are
using groundwater. But inadequate maintenance and neglect of the environment around
water sources has led to increasing levels of groundwater pollution. In some parts of the
country, excessive arsenic and fluoride in drinking water also pose a health threat.
HIV and AIDS
While a range of diseases (such as malaria) affect food security, HIV has had the biggest
impact in recent years. Poverty increases vulnerability to risk of infection (due to more risky
behaviours such as transactional sex), as well as the impact of the disease. HIV/AIDS mainly
affects economically active adults, and so contributes to worsening and widespread food
insecurity by undermining the capacity of households to work and so to produce or buy
food, increasing the number of orphans and children with little or no care, and reducing
social support mechanisms (Sansad 2007).
Gender
Caste
In terms of education, Dalit communities have only marginally lower Gross Enrolment
Ratios (GER) in education for girls than the national population, and there is only a
negligible gap between GERs for boys and girls, unlike other sections of the population
where this gap is pronounced. Women within these groups also have higher labour force
participation rates, and are thus less likely to be involved exclusively in domestic duties,
though their employment is concentrated in casual labour. It is not clear if this results in
furthering their decision making ability within the family and the community.
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Religion
Women are particularly affected by religion. Seen as the bearers of religious tradition, there
are often restrictions on their public and private roles in the name of religion. Women are
often discouraged from getting an education or being economically productive, marriage
pressures are high from a very young age (especially in rural areas), and biases within
religions towards men are some examples of how religion can affect women’s development.
Health
Maternal mortality: estimated at 437 deaths per 100 births, most maternal deaths are caused
by infection, haemorrhage, eclampsia, obstructed labour, abortion and anaemia. Lack of time
between deliveries — 37% of births occur within two years of the latest birth —this also
exacerbates mortality rates. Lack of appropriate care during childbirth is held primarily
responsible and studies show that referral to appropriate health care facilities can prevent a
majority of such deaths. Lack of prenatal care: 37% of pregnant mothers in India received no
prenatal care during their pregnancies. The proportion varied directly with education levels
and place of residence. Importantly, mothers cited the lack of nearby adequate health care
facilities as one of the main reasons that they did not seek/receive care.
Anaemia: the deficiency of iron (or anaemia) afflicts between 50 to 90% of all pregnant
women in India. Severe anaemia increases the chances of haemorrhage during labour and
accounts for 20% of all maternal deaths in India (Bhan 2001).
Intra household food distribution and access to health care
Iincreases in the level of nutrition of infants can be attributed directly to improvements in
women’s education and in their status relative to men. For developing countries as a whole,
these factors were are responsible for over 50% of the total reduction in rates of malnutrition
amongst children from 1970 to 1995. Further evidence has found that the rate of severely
undernourished children is 3 times as high amongst illiterate mothers as those who have had
a high school education, while the rate of malnutrition is nearly twice as high (Bhan 2001).
There thus seems to be a direct relation between the reduction of severe malnutrition and
rising education levels.
Studies also show that nutritional allocations (within and outside the household) are biased
against female children and that differential mortality rates are caused by neglect of the
female child. The bias is most prevalent among the landless.
Later born female children are found to be the most discriminated against within the
household, though a similar bias was not found for later born male children. Increasing
levels of literacy did not automatically alleviate the bias against female children. In fact, it
was found that at a higher literacy level, discrimination against the female child remained
unchanged, or even intensified.
Strong gender biases exist in access to health care. Female children were found to be the most
disadvantaged — a trend that was most prevalent in Orissa, Haryana and Punjab. It is
shown that girls only account for a third of outpatient care and less than 16.5% of inpatient
care. Girls are less likely to be brought into hospitals than boys, and are almost always
brought in at a later stage in the illness (Bhan 2001). Given intrahousehold nutritional biases
that have already been discussed, it is found that girls take longer to recover from diseases
and have higher rates of mortality within hospitals, factors that seriously affect their ability
to be economically productive over the long run.
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Without overall improvements in education, empowerment, and per capita income, targeted
interventions will continue to be ineffective.
Genetic Modification technology
Biotechnology can play an important role in strengthening food, water and health security
systems if harnessed for the public good. Successful organic farming will need inputs like
bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides. Recent widespread public concern relating to genetically
modified (GM) food stresses the need for more effective and transparent mechanisms for
assessing the benefits and risks associated with transgenic plants and animals.
There is little debate in the country on any lessons that may have been learnt from the Green
Revolution and between policy makers and other stakeholders about the path that
biotechnology should take in India. Consultation with the public or sharing information has
not been extensively done yet.
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Root causes of food insecurity
Institutional context
When looking for causes-behind-the-causes, the institutional context of India should be
looked at. Formal and informal institutions can be distinguished, institutions being defined
as ‘the way things are done’. While formal, de-personalized structures of state and politics
do exist, the dynamics of real power in South Asia remain intricately linked to family and
personal connections.
Formal channels and structures of political power are seriously threatened by the politics of
informal power brokerage, and systems of patronage overshadow the formal systems of
governance. Consequently, the exercise of real power is often indirect. (Shaheed 2003)
Generally the reliance on informal institutions to facilitate transactions is high in developing
economies, and informal institutions go a long way towards resolving information and
enforcement problems without resorting to the formal public legal systems.
Informal institutions can be superior to formal alternatives, either because they are more
efficient at achieving the objective or because they embody features that formal institutions
are unable to provide.
Examples of informal institutions in India related to gender and castes include norms of civil
codes around marriage, the abolition of dowry, child marriage, equal access to education,
nutrition, or health care, unequal wage-rates, to name a few. Formal institutions exist in
many of these areas in the form of laws banning bigamy, early marriage, dowry, etc or
requiring non-discrimination in schools, health facilities, nutrition centres, or labour markets.
Yet, poor formulation of laws, ineffective implementation and lack of leadership or
incentives to ensure that the formal institutions actually begin to take hold, results in
informal norms continuing and even growing stronger. An example is the anti-dowry Act in
India which has never been effectively enforced; in the meanwhile, the phenomenon of
dowry has been expanding even into communities where it did not exist previously (Sen
2006).
Castes
From a sociological point of view, the family is the basis of the society. The joint family and
caste are only the extended versions of the family. The joint family might have been eroded
in recent times especially in the urban areas but kinship, in the form of caste, still prevails.
Casteism gets a continuous boost because this seems to have become the basis of politics.
Organisation of society based on caste and kinship and the differences in the stages of
development between the states provides a very strong rationale for corruption. Caste and
nepotism become the basis for distribution of patronage. One of the Chief Ministers is
reported to have replied when asked why he was favouring his relatives “If I do not favour
my relatives, whose relatives am I supposed to favour?”
Caste has long been an important dimension of social articulation and political mobilisation
in the state. In the domain of electoral politics, caste assumed an active role as the basis of
political grouping and the mobilisation of electoral support in the State. In terms of caste
structure and articulation, the regions display significant variations. The Brahmins,
comprising 3% of the population and ritually placed at the top of the caste pyramid, have
historically dominated social, cultural and economic life. The opportunities provided by
colonial modernity – economic, educational and administrative institutions – were one
catalytic factor that hastened the Brahmin community’s move to urban areas and vocations;
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the 20th Century challenges posed by lower caste assertions and peasant movements to their
traditional social position and privileges, were another.
Corruption
Corruption thrives in societies where institutions of government are weak. Good institutions
are nurseries for good governance. No initiative whether on food security or poverty
alleviation or anything else for that matter will work in the absence of ethical public
behaviour as a result of poor governance culture.
The state has a crucial role in making things happen. Their effectiveness, however, is only as
strong as the institutions that underpin their planning and implementation capacity which
must be based on serving the needs of the many and not the interests of the few.
In the study of Transparency International (TI) (2005) on corruption in India, relatively police
stands out high on the corruption score. Judiciary (lower courts) and land administration are
rated next. The corruption in government hospitals mostly has to do with non-availability of
medicines, admission, consultations with doctors and availing of diagnostic services. Despite
reforms, electricity services figure high in corruption score. PDS figures lower in the
corruption score as the problem of the common man dealing with services is also related to
leakages in the system.
Going by the composite ranking of states on corruption involving common citizens and in
the context of eleven Public Services, Kerala stands out as the least corrupt State in India.
Bihar is the most corrupt state.
In the study of TI (2005) users of various public services across India named seven key
factors that stand out as responsible for a widespread corruption in the system. These
include:
Lack of transparency and accountability in the system.
Lack of an effective corruption reporting mechanism.
Lack of honesty in officials in the Government.
Acceptance of ‘bribes’ as a way of life, custom and culture.
Ineffective anti-corruption institutions, including police and judiciary.
Poor economic policies.
Inadequate training and orientation of government officials.
Corruption in the Public Distribution System
31% of the food grains and 36% of the sugar meant for the Public Distribution System (PDS),
which is designed to provide food security to the people below the poverty line, gets
diverted to the black market. The government of India (GOI) spends Rs.15,000 crores (1 crore
= 10.000.000) every year by way of subsidy to the PDS. This means that Rs.5000 crores are not
used for giving relief to the poor but land in the pockets of shopkeepers and their protectors
in politics and bureaucracy. Rajiv Gandhi once observed that out of every rupee meant for
the anti- poverty programmes only 15 paise reached the beneficiary. Out of the 85 paise
maybe 40 paise can be accounted for as administrative overheads. The leakage of the
remaining 45 paise is definitely due to corruption.
Open market economy and liberalisation
The agricultural sector in India is also facing challenges from WTO regime. Under pressure
from advanced countries, the Indian government removed all quantitative trade restriction
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by April 2001, much in advance to the available timetable, and exposed the farmers to global
unfair trade. Farmers immediately were hit with declining commodity prices. While prices of
crops like cotton and sugar declined by nearly 50 per cent, oilseed crops experienced a
decline of up to 85 per cent. Plantation crops like tea and coffee also faced a price crunch.
This was too many massive a blow to the farmers and a large number of them resorted to
suicides. The majority who committed suicide relied on commercial crops like cotton,
chillies, tobacco and groundnut. While developing countries like India are lowering the
subsidies being provided to the beleaguered farmers, developed countries and particularly
USA are increasing the subsidies to their farmers by conveniently categorising them as non-
trade distorting. It is important to evolve mechanisms to protect the farming community
who are already in deep crisis from the onslaught of the WTO regime and the resultant
liberalisation (John, 2006). Internationally, food is being traded by powerful multinational
companies. By passing on the reins of the nation’s food security to these companies and the
trading blocks through a policing system under the WTO, India is witnessing a gradual
collapse of food self-sufficiency and the scrapping of the public distribution system, the very
foundation of food security.
Farmer suicides
Another tragic development in the background of unravelling liberalisation, as already
mentioned in the previous paragraph, is the suicide rate among farmers. The farmers’
suicides are reported from many states including Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab
and Andhra Pradesh. The irony of the situation is that the very farmers who supplied life
sustaining food grains to the nation are not able to sustain their own lives. Over the last five
years, thousands of farmers in different parts of the country chose to end their lives as they
found themselves unable to face the pressures of the crisis engulfing the agriculture sector.
Government policies towards food security
The situations of chronic poverty and hunger are characterised by the mismatch between the
policies of the government on food availability, food access, food absorption and pricing.
Though availability of food in India is not a problem – India achieved huge piles of food
stocks through increase in production through investments in agriculture, and procurement
operation of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) - it is generally observed that the drive for
national food self-sufficiency had its focus on hybrid rice and wheat production in irrigated,
better quality lands of large farmers in the Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh,
neglecting other crops and small farmers in the rain-fed agricultural areas of central and
eastern India. Thus access to food is more of a problem. Moreover, the huge subsidy offered
by the government at the procurement stage largely went to the big farmers who had excess
food to sell. Efforts at making food accessible to the hungry through the universal Public
Distribution System and then through the Targeted Public Distribution system have not
reached the extremely poor. The food basket of the population surveyed in the study on
Hunger in India (John 2006) shows no diversification of food items away from cereals as has
been argued by many to substantiate low calorie intake by the rural poor, leading to severe
malnutrition. Nevertheless, the recent agricultural policies of the government such as the
promotion of export oriented agriculture, neglect of rain fed areas, emphasis of corporate
agriculture neglecting the interests of small farmers, might worsen the trend of land
alienation, indebtedness and food insecurity of the cultivators. Export orientation of global
agricultural production as opposed to a sustainable livelihood option; increasing corporate
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control over food chain, global trade in agriculture under WTO that allows distorted export
import policies in favour of corporate houses, act as external pressures on Indian
government to go ahead with its current agricultural policy.
Food for Work programme (FFW)
The FFW programme has limitations to meet the food needs, on time, of all the poor in
drought areas. One of the limitations is the complex nature of drought intervention measures
and decision-making in the government, defeating the purpose of mitigation measures and
timely intervention. Also, under FFW, ‘work’ rather than the ‘food’ needs of the poor became
the focus. The senior officials have been concerned with monitoring and certifying ‘work’
rather than distributing food in time and to all the needy. This has led to corruption as
mentioned earlier in the work certification and food distribution, and the role for contractors
and use of machinery at the cost of the needy poor.
To serve the original objective of FFW – to address food needs of hungry households
in drought areas – the programme must be restructured. A unique civil society initiative
in Andhra Pradesh to reach the needy in drought prone areas is Food Assurance. Under this
approach which has been accepted by the government, but not yet implemented effectively,
is that grain and cash are given on time and if necessary, on credit. Sometimes, grain may be
advanced and at other times, people would have repaid the value by work and have to
obtain the grain.
The advantages of Food Assurance are:
The poor receive food immediately when they need it most.
The role of the officials is one of facilitators rather than enforcers.
The communities have ownership of the works undertaken, thereby doing works
that are suitable both to the community need and skills of the workers.
The extent of ‘works’ taken up is limited to the cash value of food borrowed.
The people get food during the difficult time of summer and execute work when
the weather is more merciful and the work is ‘productive’.
It provides dignity to the poor and involves borrowing and lending.
Food grains supplied under the Public Distribution System (PDS) are an important source of
food to the poor households at affordable price, though this accounted for only a small
proportion of their food needs – i.e., less than 25 per cent. As a part of reducing the subsidy
burden, attempts are being made to reduce the reach as well as quantum of food grain
supply under PDS. The targeted PDS (TPDS) being implemented since 1997 is one such
attempt. Under it, only below poverty line (BPL) families are being allowed to access food
grain at lower price, i.e., Rs5.65 per kg. The poverty measurements used by the government
are another instrument to deny large sections of the poor population fruits of PDS.
According to government estimates, 60 million people crossed the poverty line. Even if a
lower estimate arrived at by Deaton is adopted, 30 million people would be out of the BPL
net. On policies focussed towards utilisation of food not much is known, most policies focus
on access to food.
Specific groups affected
Social exclusion is a fundamental characteristic of chronically hungry. In the study on
hunger in India of the Centre for Education and Communciation (CEC) (John, 2006) about 88
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per cent of the households belongs either to the Scheduled Castes (Dalit) or Scheduled Tribes
(Adivasis), the two worst socially excluded communities in India under its caste system. In
the surveyed villages, social exclusion is not only in terms of exclusion from participation
and decision making in the social life of the rest of the community but also in geographically
isolating the people into remote, inaccessible and inhospitable areas. Social exclusion goes
hand in hand with economic deprivation and political exclusion, making it a vicious cycle
enforcing and regenerating chronic poverty and hunger. All households in the survey with
monthly income less than Rs.1000 belong to the Dalit and Adivasi communities; 92 per cent
of Adivasis and 81 per cent of Dalits earn a monthly income less than Rs.750. Chronic hunger
manifests structured dynamics that regenerates chronic hunger again and again. Chronic
hunger is not incidental; it is inherent in the social and economic inequalities of the society.
(John, 2006).
The social structure in India is based on a hierarchical caste system; and ‘untouchability’, is
the lowest caste. Those engaged in activities supposedly polluting for the individuals who
performed them, like sweeping, cleaning of excreta, removal of dead bodies and leather
works, are considered untouchables in the system. The Hindu high castes in the society, by
practicing untouchability, deprived the untouchables of education, cultural pursuits and
economic empowerment, social justice, equality of status and of dignity and opportunity.
‘Dalit’ (literally the depressed or broken down) is the politically correct term used by the
people as opposed to other derogatory (chamar, bhnagi) or condescending (Harijan)
terminologies.
Adivasis', literally meaning 'indigenous people' or 'original inhabitants' are not, as a general
rule, regarded as unclean by caste Hindus in the same way as Dalits are. But they continue to
face prejudice (as lesser humans), they are socially distanced and often face violence from
society. They are at the lowest point in every socio-economic indicator. Relegating the
Adivasis to the lowest rung in the social ladder was but natural and formed the basis of
social and political decision making by the largely upper caste controlled mainstream. (John,
2006)
Female headed households
In India, a patrilineal society marks family lineage/inheritance through the male and women
are considered subordinate in all respects, although major household responsibility is borne
by her, irrespective of the fact whether she is engaged in employment outside the home.
Mostly, women assume the role of the head of the family in distress situations like death of
their husbands or abandonment. In the sample, 8 per cent of the households have reported to
be female headed. Among them, 64% are adivasis and 23% dalits.
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Options for linking and learning, identification of relevant institutes
International organisations:
TI (transparency international): done a lot of work on corruption in the Public Distribution
System. http://www.tiindia.in
FAO: Special programme on food security. Projects may include a combination of two tracks:
Track one: Improving livelihoods of the poor, especially small-scale farmers
Track two: Improving access to food for vulnerable people
Programmes in track 1 are the following: Sustainable smallholder development (better
management of water, soil fertility, pests, small livestock), urban/periurban agriculture and
forestry, school gardens (linked to school feeding), land reform, market linkage
development, food safety and quality, rural infrastructure, research and extension (especially
training-of-trainers for participative learning processes), natural resources management
(including biodiversity), skills training and adult literacy (linked to safety nets).
Track 2:
Mother and infant feeding (including nutrient supplements), school feeding, unemployment
and pension benefits and conditional cash transfers, food-for-work, food-for-training, soup
kitchens and factory canteens, food banks and emergency rations.
http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/index.asp?lang=en&ISO3=IND
World Food Programme: http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/indexcountry.asp?country=356
The WFP’s main tasks in India are to: Combat malnutrition and invest in human resources;
Help improve immediate food security for selected target groups; Maximize the active
participation of women in projects; Advocate joint forest management; Help strengthen
distribution channels for locally-produced food grains; Increase agricultural production and
create employment. Specific beneficiaries include poor women (especially mothers), at-risk
children, and poor forest-dependent populations.
International Water Management Institute (IWMI): Headquarters in Sri Lanka, but also an
office in Hyderabad India. The institute has worked extensively on crop productivity,
watermanagement in relation to health issues and can provide valuable input on food
security. www.iwmi.cgiar.org
International Food Policy Research Institute: http://www.ifpri.org/country/india.asp
Civil society:
IDE India: http://www.ide-india.org A not -for- profit enterprise working on long-term
solutions to poverty, hunger and malnutrition. It is focussed on free market development by
creating demand for affordable technologies and a sustainable supply chain
PACS (Poorest Areas Civil Society) Programme: a large, non-governmental effort against
poverty in India. The PACS Programme is a seven-year (2001-2008) effort to empower
millions of poor people living in India. It seeks to achieve this by strengthening civil society
organisations (CSOs) working for the poor. The programme today covers 17,000 villages in
93 districts of 6 states through a network of over 615 CSOs. www.empowerpoor.com
Gene Campaign: www.genecampaign.org A grassroots level organisation with a presence in
17 states of India, and is concerned about food and livelihood security. Gene Campaign is a
leading research and advocacy organisation working in the field of bioresources, farmers'
and community rights, intellectual property rights and indigenous knowledge, biopiracy,
issues related with GM food and crops.
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International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) http://www.ibfan-
asiapacific.org/ibfan.html IBFAN aims to promote the health and well-being of infants and
young children and their mothers through protection, promotion and support of optimal
infant and young child feeding practices.
Right to food campaign www.righttofoodindia.org The "Right to Food Campaign" is an
informal network of organisations and individuals committed to the realisation of the right to
food in India.
GREEN Foundation: www.greenconserve.com A community based organisation working
with disadvantaged groups of small and marginal farmers, backward castes, tribals and
dalits, especially women, in the semi-arid regions of South India, towards the conservation of
agro biodiversity and the promotion of sustainable agriculture.
Government:
Food Corporation of India: http://fciweb.nic.in: Was setup under the Food Corporation Act
1964, in order to fulfill following objectives of the Food Policy : Effective price support
operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers, distribution of foodgrains
throughout the country for the public distribution system; and maintaining a satisfactory
level of operational and buffer stocks of foodgrains to ensure national food security.
FCI has played a significant role in making India self sufficient in foodgrains.
Ministry of consumer affairs, dept of food and public distribution:
http://www.fcamin.nic.in/dfpd_html/index.asp It’s two objectives are to ensure remunerative
rates for farmers and the supply of food grains at reasonable prices to the consumers through
the public distribution system.
Ministry of women and child development: http://wcd.nic.in/fnbweb.htm, food and nutrition
board. FNB is primarily engaged in nutrition education and training activities, mass
awareness campaigns, promotion of infant and young child nutrition and follow up of
national nutrition policy.
Options for improvement of the food security situation
General recommendations
Chronic hunger is a reality. There is urgent need for the civil society to act, in working with
the poor, raising the voice in favour of their human rights and mobilizing public action to
make the government accountable. A number of recommendations are given to the
government:
1. Right to food is a fundamental right as part of the right to life. Government should take
immediate steps to reach food supply to the chronically poor areas.
2. Considering the growing wage employment in rural areas, government should take steps
to improve the quality of employment, enhance wages and provide social security for the
workers. A well functioning National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 would be an
immediate step in this direction.
3. Nation wide survey should be conducted by the government with the help of the local
government / village panchayats to identify specific reasons for chronic hunger with the
focus on the social aspects. It is important to identify the social dimensions of such problems
perceived only in the economic framework (low income). Problems specific to the socially
disadvantaged groups need to be addressed simultaneously.
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4. Various schemes implemented by the government (through different Ministries) for the
poor and hungry fail to reach its target. The bottlenecks should be identified and immediate
efforts to create an able environment for proper functioning of the programs meant for the
hungry is of utmost importance.
5. Considering the importance of social exclusion in perpetuating chronic poverty and
hunger, Dalits and Adivasis must be included in all decision making and implementation
process as a part of participatory empowerment. The socially excluded communities must
not be seen as mere beneficiaries of the scheme but the ownership and implementation of the
whole program must be done through their social organisations. Similarly, the PDS and
MMS centres must be strategically relocated in socially excluded households or caste and
ethnicity neutral localities. The authorities must ensure partnerships with Adivasi and Dalit
women’s groups and community in jointly deciding, implementing, and monitoring the
programs. By encouraging participatory empowerment in terms of management and
ownership of the programs, the state can reduce discrimination, ensure access and
availability of food stock leading to food security with social justice.
6. Although the central and state governments have several protective legislations such as
the land tenancy act to safeguard the interest of Adivasis and Dalits but its enforcement is an
area of serious concern. In order to ensure sustainable food security with social justice,
necessary changes must be brought in its enforcement system so that the interests of
marginalized communities are protected effectively at any cost.
7. As most of the cases of severe food insecurity are found in the rural India, it is important
to reiterate the need for land rights of the marginalized. It is to be noted that by land rights it
is not meant right to homestead land only, but also cultivable land. Government should
provide an enabling environment for cultivation by ensuring supply of factors like
availability of water, infrastructure, credit facilities etc.
8. The agricultural policy should address the interests of small farmers in rain fed areas and
promote diversity of crops to ensure food security
9. Government should rethink the export orientation, promotion of cash crops and
corporatisation of agriculture to the detriment of food security for small farmers and
workers.
10. Civil society groups could play a positive role in monitoring the poverty and hunger
alleviation activities of the government and could act as pressure groups.
Natural resources management
Groundwater depletion
It is important to realize that groundwater is not a resource that could be utilized
unmindfully simply because it is available in abundant quantities. Problems and issues such
as water logging, salinity, agricultural toxins, and industrial effluents, all need to be properly
looked into.
Other than legislation and checks to conserve and improve the quality of groundwater,
society itself plays a very important role. During the last decade there has been a rising
awareness among the common people on the need for conservation and development of
groundwater. Water use has to be integrated effectively with water regeneration, as was
done in many traditional technologies.
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Renovation of forest tanks in drought-prone regions will have a significant impact on
wildlife and forest cover. Similarly, in some urban cities there is a need to regenerate
groundwater aquifers because of the high degree of dependence on them for drinking water.
Rainwater harvesting schemes have been taken up in many cities and even made
compulsory in some of them. Temple tanks need to be renovated and urban wetlands
protected. All these will contribute to a rise in the groundwater level and a reduction of salt
water. Community awareness and management of freshwater resources should be enhanced.
The government should implement effective groundwater legislation and regulations
through self-regulation by communities and local institutions. External support agencies
should support freshwater resource management. Environmental restoration should be
promoted along with household water security.
No single action whether community based, legislation, traditional water harvesting
systems, or reliance on market forces will in itself alleviate the crisis in India. The effective
answer to the freshwater crisis is to integrate conservation and development activities – from
water extraction to water management – at the local level; making communities aware and
involving them fully is therefore critical for success. All this will ultimately pave the way for
combining conservation of the environment with the basic needs of people.
Gender equality
Education
In the area of nutrition, outreach programs could meet with new mothers in rural areas to
provide instruction on the nutritional needs of their families and ways to meet those needs
(including the consumption of uncultivated plants). In the area of agriculture, women need
to be educated on ways to blend the best of both environmental and biotechnological
practices. They need to be taught about crop diversification, crop shifting, and effects of
genetically modified seeds and fertilizers and their compatibility with the environment. In
order to be proactive in their progress, women need to build their literacy skills. Starting
small community education centres in rural villages that are accessible for women is a key.
Mothers would become models of active learning and support their children’s education as
well.
Empowerment
One initiative to empower Dalit women farmers is to start their own local distribution
system through an NGO. Through this process, they are able to enrich their farmland so that
it will support crops grown with indigenous seeds. They then used the grains harvested to
repay their seed loan and store it in a community grain fund. Storing the grain in their
village enables access to food in the case of desperation or emergency.
The government of India has also seen the need for these local distribution systems;
however, they are leaving local women out of the formula. The Dalit model of empowerment
can be replicated in India’s efforts to create local distribution systems. Putting control of the
distribution systems in the hands of local rural women could ensure community grain banks
store food that is grown locally according to their customs and practices (Kohli). If the
knowledge increases on proper food distribution and more local distribution systems are
created, the number of hungry and malnourished will decrease.
Nutrition awareness and education
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India has a rich cultural heritage and in reaching rural populations folk media (puppets,
drama, story telling, and music) provide an effective means. Most suitable for working with
tribal populations appear to be the media of the spoken work, song and drama, games,
exhibitions at the weekly market and yearly festivals, and pictorial aids. There is need to tap
into the potential of folk media in health education. Health educators have not yet tapped
perhaps the greatest resources such as religious leaders, traditional healers, and traditional
birth attendants (dais). India is a pluralistic society and there are a vast number of
community resources that can be harnessed for health education. There is a need to enhance
the involvement of many of these functionaries in health education. Patient education is in its
infancy stages in India. Ill people and family members in a hospital are a captive audience
and tend to be receptive to public health messages. Further health workers at clinics and
during home visits can inform clients about health. The setting of worksite based health
education is non existent in India and needs to be developed more.
Genetic Modification
Some recommendations:
A distinct law should be enacted to oversee Genetic Modification Technology and its
implementation. This law must harmonise with other laws and national and
international agreements.
A comprehensive biotechnology policy should be developed in consultation with all
stakeholders.
There should be a consultative and participatory process to prioritise crops and traits
for genetic improvement through biotechnology with the goal of addressing the
needs of small farmers and Indian agriculture.
Investment in public sector research should be increased and strengthened. Novel
gene discovery in crops of relevance to India should get highest priority.
India must develop a policy for transgenic varieties of crops for which it is a Centre
of Origin and Diversity. Commercial cultivation of GM rice should not be allowed
until the nature of gene flow and its impact is understood.
Alternatives to the GM approach must be carefully evaluated in each case before
deciding on the GM route. A cost and risk benefit analysis must be conducted before
deciding on a GM product.
Protocol for food safety tests must be vastly improved and mechanisms for long term
monitoring of human health (post GM food release) be put in place.
Develop a stringent protocol to assess environmental and ecological impact.
There should be provisions for post-market surveillance and monitoring of GM
products.
A new statutory, independent National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority must be
established.
Make the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) more competent,
transparent and accountable. Post data on research and development of GM crops
and products on websites and local newspapers.
Conduct a scientifically sound study to assess attitudes and perceptions about GM
technology among stakeholders in India.
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Undertake a program of awareness about GM technology to educate the public.
There should be a moratorium on commercial cultivation of GM crops until the
regulatory system is demonstrably improved. Research on GM crops, however,
should continue. (Gene Campaign 2004).
Improvement of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
The monitoring of NREGA implementation has highlighted several issues of concern to
stakeholders. Some ways of improving implementation of the programme are suggested
here:
The electronic media and traditional media like street plays, village meetings, etc, should be
used to provide basic information about the act as well as the rights of card holders, and how
to exercise these rights. Government and civil society efforts to popularise the scheme must
be scaled up and intensified. The success of the programme depends largely on the
effectiveness of demand raised by citizens.
Panchayats are the key implementers. Their knowledge and skills must be enhanced in the
following areas:
• Developing perspective or development plans of villages, with gram sabha participation.
• Basics of civil engineering and preparing cost estimates of works.
• Perspective on relevance of social audits/transparency in business transacted.
• Sensitivity and vision in involving the disabled, women and other disadvantaged sections.
• Skills in bookkeeping and accounts, maintenance of created assets including tax-collection.
Zilla panchayats and janpad panchayats must have a clear role under the NREGA. These
higher tiers of panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) need to become more actively involved in
NREGA implementation if the district is to be the unit of development. Works within the
boundaries of panchayats will be exhausted in a few years, and works involving the
boundaries of several panchayats will have to be undertaken (link roads, irrigation systems,
etc). The higher tiers of PRIs have a more important role in receiving funds for multi-
panchayat projects, levying taxes and maintaining large assets.
Information centres, particularly in SC/ST-dominated areas where information about the
NREGA is sparse, are essential. These centres can also collect information on issues
highlighted by citizens and panchayats, and pass it on to district or state officials for better
implementation and redressal. Selected CSOs can provide expert advice to panchayats when
required.
Local and regional market development
Another necessity is to develop the market as an institution for rural development. A
primary cause for persistent poverty is limited interaction with markets by the rural poor.
The poor cannot afford to purchase required inputs for their small plots or invest in
production technologies, resulting in production that does not rise above subsistence levels.
The IPMAS model developed by IDE India believes that poverty can be addressed on a large
scale by helping rural poor overcome the barriers that keep them from participation in
"markets". The challenge is to allow the evolution of pro-poor markets that enable the poor to
be members of both input and output markets,.
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Constraints at input, on-farm and output levels for the small holder and the other market
actors in delivering services to the rural poor, have to be identified. The focus is on
development of diversified crop portfolios through identification of remunerative crops that
can be grown in the area.
IDEI seeks to achieve this through capacity building and training of the farmers in successful
crop management and use of high quality inputs. The following steps are necessary:
Identifying relevant technologies and creating a supply chain,
Development of diversified crop portfolios. Listing the crops grown by small holders
across seasons and understanding why farmers grow what they do, we will do a
detailed cost-benefit analysis of the key crops/varieties grown. This will helps us in
identifying the most remunerative crops that can be grown in the area and evaluation
and suggestion of crop portfolio options to the farmers.
Organize trainings for small holders to suggest the crop portfolio options and the
various other optimal inputs and best practices like IPM, IFM and IWM required to
grow them.
Linkages with public sector actors (government agronomic extension, university
research) and private sector enterprises who act as service providers of production
inputs (seed, fertilizer, technology, micro credit) and on-farm agronomic training.
Introduce and promote Vermin wash technology as a high quality inputs for
micronutrients. The farmers will be trained to produce the high quality nutrient
indigenously on farms through the traditional method of use of earthworms in
composting through use of readily available raw materials.
Linkages with nursery growers from where the saplings for high value crops can be
accessed by farmers. Entrepreneurial farmers will be motivated to set up nurseries
which will provide him with business development opportunities and will give an
easy access to good quality saplings to other farmer.
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PAKISTAN
Who are the hungry?
According to a study of the SPDI (2004) the country can be classified into five food security
zones: extremely food insecure, very insecure, less insecure, moderately secure and
reasonably secure. Three of these five levels of ranking determine acuteness of food
insecurity in rural Pakistan. According to this classification, 38 districts out of 120 are the
most vulnerable being poor and extremely food insecure. The majority of these districts fall
in Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province, while all districts in Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and 4 out of 5 districts in the Northern Areas (NA) fall in
the extreme food insecure zone.
In total, 80 districts out of 120, are vulnerable to food insecurity. More than half of the
moderately and reasonably secure districts are in Punjab.
The western part of Pakistan, from north to south is food insecure, according to the SDPI
classification, except for one or two districts. The outcome of their analysis suggests
constraints in resource availability, development, and investment in these areas. Most of this
belt is arid, away from the major river systems in Pakistan and there are little opportunities
for income diversification outside agriculture. Further, this area lacks in terms of industrial
development and there has been very little investment in socio-economic sectors. The
districts ranking of food insecurity reveals that Tharparker district of Sindh province is the
most insecure district, followed by Dera Bugti in Baluchistan province.
In terms of calorie intake all areas have a calorie intake of more than 2000 kcal per person,
whereas for example in Bangladesh this is often less than 1800 kcal in rural areas, which is
labelled as ultra-poor. The problem lies more in the non-equity of food distribution within
each of the categories and within households.
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Primary causes of food insecurity in Pakistan
Natural resources management
Water resources and irrigation
About 28 per cent of the total land of Pakistan is cultivated, and nearly 80% per cent is
irrigated through canals or tubewells. The actual availability of water in a specific area
depends upon canal water allocation and the capacity of the surface supply network, rainfall
and ground water potential. The net water from three sources varies widely among different
canal command areas. There is also a level of inequalities along the distribution system, due
to operational and management problems leading to tail shortages and unreliability of water
supply.
A major water management concern for Pakistan is to stop moving towards an imbalance
with respect to water availability, utilisation and quality across the basin. Groundwater
quality deteriorates due to the continuous addition of salt and the intrusion of bad quality
groundwater in sweet water zones. The water reservoir is depleting in sweet water zones
and accumulating in already water logged bad quality areas. Primary and secondary
salinisation is increasing in cropped areas.
Scarcity of water during winter is reported to be a major cause of the low yield for the wheat
crop. In winter, fresh water is available in most of the command areas, including
waterlogged areas, but is still less than crop water requirements. Whereas, during monsoon,
a considerable part of the rain cannot be utilised and wastes to bad quality groundwater
sinks. This leads to a carry-over option within the basin. A regional and professional
controversy exists about this type of option in the context of lower riparian rights,
environmental needs for water and the future demand for household, industry, etc. Salinity,
poor drainage and the use of bad quality groundwater are adversely influencing production.
The higher demand of water has tempted head-end users to acquire more water through
local adjustments, which has been possible due to the lack of accountability and a lack of
resistance from the group of people suffering this situation.
Efficiency at farm level is low, and this is attributed to irrigation practices, unreliable water
supply and crop damages. A lack of knowledge on efficient irrigation techniques and low
investment potential are other reasons. Productivity should be enhanced with other income
generating activities like livestock, food processing and cottage industries. It is clear that in
order to have a reasonable livelihood, socio-economic measures beyond water are needed.
Salt water intrusion
The intrusion of salt water in the coastal areas of Pakistan is a serious threat to food security
in these areas. The main causes for this phenomenon are a major reduction in water flow
reaching the sea, reducing the salinity, and with this flow an important silt load. The silt
contains nutrients that serve as food for phytoplankton and zooplankton which in turn are
food for fish. The reduced flow of water is caused by the construction of Kotri Barrage and
Guddu Barrage, and a number of link canals and barrages in the Punjab and Sindh, where a
large amount of water is used for irrigation before it reaches the south of Pakistan. In the
1991 Water Accord between Pakistani provinces, it was decided that 10 million acre feet
(MAF) of water should reach the sea with a minimum of 5000 cubic feet per second (cusecs)
on any day of the year. In 2005 this number was adjusted to a lower amount, but this target is
not reached. When an insufficient amount of river water reaches the sea, sea water intrusion
is the result, changing the whole coastal environment. The intrusion of sea water has been at
the loss of mangroves and fisheries, in particular shrimps. The fish catch is only one-third of
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the catch of 30 years back. Seawater renders fertile agricultural lands useless, resulting in loss
of jobs and economic devastation. Damages to health include throat swelling as a result of
drinking brackish water.
There has also been severe damage to livestock. Saltwater intrusion caused a dramatic
decline in livestock numbers in all the three subdivisions of Thatta District, bringing about
depletion and erosion of ranges, shortages of fodder, pasture and potable water and a
resulting mass migration of inhabitants.
Pollution as a result of reduced water flows
As a result of population growth and reduced water flows downstream, Indus pollution is
worsening. Levels of oxygen depleting organic contaminants from sewage, toxic compounds
from industrial discharges, and pesticides and chemical nutrients from irrigation returns are
increasing in the Indus. Water borne diseases are on the rise. Many fish and other aquatic
species have declined in number and diversity. If the situation is not reversed, further water
degradation will occur and impact on the aquatic life, public health, and other uses of water
will be even more significant. (Altaf, 2004)
Use of untreated wastewater in agriculture
The practice of using untreated wastewater for irrigation is widespread but has been largely
ignored because the norm has always been that wastewater should be treated before use.
Increasing water scarcity, lack of money for treatment and a clear willingness by farmers to
use untreated wastewater have led to an uncontrolled expansion of wastewater use.
Wastewater carries a wide spectrum of pathogenic organisms posing a risk to agricultural
workers, crop handlers and consumers (Ensink et al. 2002). High levels of nitrogen in
wastewater may result in nitrate pollution of groundwater sources used for drinking, which
could lead to adverse health effects. Accumulation of heavy metals in soils and its uptake by
plants is another risk associated with wastewater irrigation. On the other hand, wastewater
is seen as a reliable water source, and crops are produced close to consumer markets so that
perishable high-valued crops like vegetables can be grown. Because of the high levels of
essential macronutrients—nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium—in wastewater, the
additional application of chemical fertilizers becomes unnecessary, or can be considerably
reduced. These nutrients make wastewater a valued water source for farmers who are
willing to pay a higher fee for wastewater than for regular irrigation water. However, health
aspects of irrigation with untreated wastewater should not be ignored and ongoing research
is important.
Droughts
Pakistan is predominantly arid with low rainfall and higher solar radiation over most parts
of the country. The average annual rainfall in Baluchistan and Sindh provices, where ICCO is
mostly active, is about 160 mm as compared to 400 mm in the Punjab province and about 630
mm in the NWFP. These are hardest hit when a drought occurs. Even a small negative
deviation from the low mean rainfall creates additional water scarcity in the Baluchistan and
Sindh provinces and make them more vulnerable to drought. The drought of 2001 was one
of the worst in the history of the country and this can be judged from the fact that it was the
major cause for the 2002 low economic growth rate. Agricultural growth suffered due to the
unprecedented drought situation and shortage of irrigation water. Heavy direct losses due to
animal mortality, production losses and distress sales of animals were widely reported.
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In addition to the deficiency of rains, there are two other reasons responsible for droughts,
which are the rise in temperature and extraction of groundwater. Due to the high
evaporation values, the lakes and normal wells have dried up causing a serious deficiency of
water. The groundwater from the surface down to 50 meters is used by plants and trees and
therefore vegetation in these areas has nearly vanished as the water is pumped away.
This situation is forcing people to migrate to canal areas. Increased labour force in irrigated
areas has resulted in low wage rates and problems in procuring work are increasing. Due to
recession, the on-farm and off-farm employment opportunities are shrinking.
High mortality rate and reduction in the weight of livestock have significantly reduced the
income of the people in the drought-affected areas. In some parts of the Sindh where no
vegetation exists, people use wheat as fodder to preserve their only asset and means of
livelihood. The prices of food commodities have gone up in the last few years, while income
of the affected population has gone down. This has reduced their purchasing power and thus
their calorie intake, especially in rain-fed areas. Consumption of meat, dairy products, oil
and pulses has gone down and this has, in combination with the contaminated water,
exacerbated the health problems.
Knowledge and information for designing drought preparedness and mitigation
measures are limited. The gap in knowledge is basically due to the uncoordinated efforts
conducted by various institutions. Pakistan can learn from the countries in the region (Iran,
India) that have been developing programmes on drought mitigation (Ahmad 2004).
Drinking water
In large areas of Pakistan where groundwater is too saline for human use, villagers divert
canal irrigation water into small community reservoirs, diggis, to meet their domestic needs.
This water is either carried home by hand or is supplied to the household by means of PVC
pipes and hand and motor pumps, for those who can afford the required equipment.
In addition to using water directly from these reservoirs, people tap small pockets of potable
groundwater formed by seepage from unlined irrigation canals and fields. In this case, the
sandy soils act as a filter—removing faecal contaminants.
Availability of this cleaner water depends on how much and how often irrigation water is
released into the canals. For a period of four to eight weeks, during the annual canal closure,
people must rely on water stored in the local diggi or in household storage tanks.
A number of areas have piped water supply schemes, but the sand filters the schemes rely on
for water treatment are sometimes dysfunctional due to lack of funds for maintenance, and,
in effect, villagers are often being supplied with untreated irrigation water to be used as
drinking water.
Health
It is not hard to imagine that the occurrence of disease caused by poor water quality is very
high in Pakistan. About 40 percent of communicable diseases in Pakistan are water-borne. A
WHO report notes that 25 to 30 percent of hospital admissions in Pakistan are associated
with water-borne bacterial and parasitic conditions. The impact on mortality is severe. 60
Percent of infant deaths in Pakistan are caused by water borne diarrhoea and dehydration
caused by diarrhoea is a major cause of mortality among children.
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The health status of the people and animals is badly affected by droughts in Sindh and
Baluchistan. People reported increasing incidence of diarrhoea among children, skin diseases
in human beings and in animals, eye infection, fever, gastro, stomach pain and vomiting, and
due to a reduced cash income people are not consulting doctors. Waterborne diseases are
common in the area because of both poor sanitation and insufficient awareness about
hygiene. The quality of drinking water has deteriorated badly. At many places people and
animals drink from the same open ponds. This is causing health problems particularly
among children and older people.
Gender inequality
There are marked differences between the health status of women and men in Pakistan.
Malnutrition is a major public health problem that disproportionately affects women and
girls. More girls than boys die between the ages of 1 and 4; in fact the female mortality rate is
12 percent higher than for boys. This is a direct consequence of the lower social status
accorded to women and girls, who as a result tend to eat less and face additional barriers
when accessing health care. Women, girls and infants most often die of common
communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, diarrhoea, pneumonia and tetanus, which
could have been easily prevented and treated.
Inequity in household food distribution
Intra-household gender bias in favour of male children, both in terms of feeding and seeking
healthcare has been noted in Pakistan (Nazli 1999). A pattern prevails in most South Asian
countries where women are quite literally a residual category in intra-household food
distribution, eating after men and the children and making do with what is left. This
deprivation is partly self-imposed and is handed on from generation to generation. Even
pregnant women are caught up in the cycle of self-denial and food deprivation.
It is found that the more educated a child’s mother is, relative to the child’s father, the better
the child’s and mother’s long-term nutritional status. Further, the earning of cash income by
mothers improves children’s and mother’s shorter-term nutritional status. It is also found
that when the women’s status is higher the share of the household’s budget expended upon
adult goods of tobacco and clothing, is going down.
Equity in landownership
40% of the total farm area is operated by only 7% large farmers with holdings of average 10
ha or more, whereas 81% of the farmers are small with average holdings of 5 hectares or less.
This basic inequity in landholdings is reflected in the differences in their respective economic
and social positions. Larger land owners have more access to water, credit, fertilizer and
other resources. The large and medium land owners devote greater proportion of their
holdings to produce marketable products, and also receive a larger proportion of agricultural
credit and subsidies. Correspondingly 81% small farmers with holdings of 5 hectares and
less probably receive between 20 to 25% of agricultural incomes and even a lower share of
agricultural incomes and even a lower share of agricultural credit and subsidies. Women are
mostly deprived within the low-income rural perpetuation, as they don’t have the needed
collateral to obtain credit (UN, 2000).
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Employment and income diversification
In rural economy, households are forced or motivated to enter non-farm sector either by the
“pull” or the “push” factor. Households situated in the zones where agricultural activities
are concentrated are likely to be “pushed” to diversify into the rural non-farm sector to
increase their income. Households in areas where agricultural activities involve less risk
might participate in non-farm activity mainly for the higher returns they give or to alleviate
cash and credit concerns. In Pakistan, the “pull” factor contributes more towards nonfarm
activity. Recent drought has badly affected Pakistan’s economy and further strained its
ability to provide for rural households.
In order to meet the basic necessities, there is thus a shift of farm labour to non-agricultural
activities. Non-agricultural activity covers industry and manufacturing and services but
excludes primary production in agriculture. Many farming households also generate rural
non-agriculture income through wage earning work in primary activities on farming
establishments. In Pakistan rural non-farm income is comprised of 1.) Unskilled labour –
includes wages from unskilled non-farm activity, such as construction and ditch digging. 2.)
Self-employment – includes profits and earnings from shop-keeping and artisan activity plus
labour/construction contractors. 3.) Government employment – includes wages from all
grades.
Although most landless poor and marginal farmers are depending on wage labour for their
income, a lot of attention is paid to the promotion of Income Generating Activities (IGAs)
among the poor.
A number of surveys conducted provide evidence that the promotion of IGAs can be
successful to improve income (diversification) and food security. However, the most
vulnerable and underprivileged groups lack the basic requirements needed for successful
business activities. People that are either sick, disabled, or totally assetless are not able to
start an IGA. Only the moderately poor, with agricultural land up to 0.5 acres have the
necessary means to participate in IGA programmes.
Nutrition education
Many poor, especially women and children, suffer from malnutrition simply because they
did not learn about the nutrients they need, and the type of food that provides these
nutrients. Also in higher income groups this is a common phenomenon. There is moreover a
lack of awareness about the special needs of children and pregnant or lactating women.
Many people think for example that women should eat less during their pregnancy in order
to avoid a difficult delivery, i.e. the baby would be too big for the mother to deliver.
However, it is important to know which types of malnutrition can be solved by nutrition
education and which ones require improvement in socio-economic status. Instead of
operating with the implicit assumption that all nutritional problems can be solved through
the development of effective nutrition education messages, it should be identified which
problems can be addressed by nutrition education programmes.
Root causes of food insecurity in Pakistan
Informal institutions
Informal institutions can be defined as social norms that represent evolved practices with
stable rules of behaviour that are outside the formal system. Acceptable behaviour may be
governed through a set of known sanctions or through powerful processes of internalisation
without recourse to sanctions.
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While formal, de-personalized structures of state and politics do exist, the dynamics of real
power in South Asia remain intricately linked to family and personal connections.
Formal channels and structures of political power are seriously threatened by the politics of
informal power brokerage, and systems of patronage overshadow the formal systems of
governance. Consequently, the exercise of real power is often indirect. (Shaheed 2003)
Generally the reliance on informal institutions to facilitate transactions is high in developing
economies, and informal institutions go a long way towards resolving information and
enforcement problems without resorting to the formal public legal systems.
Informal institutions can be superior to formal alternatives, either because they are more
efficient at achieving the objective or because they embody features that formal institutions
are unable to provide.
Examples of informal institutions in Pakistan:
‘Relational’ understandings of rights and obligations: is that hierarchies are created
based on gender, age, and ethnicity.
The individual’s position in the family shapes assumptions about their rights and
entitlements as citizens. These roles spill over from private to public space.
Resulting in:
Weakening democracy because the ‘voices’ of women, youth, socially derided racial
or ethnic minorities have no authority.
Weakening development because imposes artificial constraints on social mobility,
limits (women’s) property rights, and condones severe abuses of their rights such as
sexual and gender-based violence.
Informal institutions put some social groups beyond the law.
At private sector level, informal institutions result in:
A very strong position of the private sector in the market and as a solution to the lack
of capacity of the state producing serious problems of regulation, coordination, and
of course equal provision, particularly in public services subcontracted to private
providers.
Privatisation both of public industry and services leads not just to inequalities
because consumers have differential purchasing powers, but also to new and more
informal forms of interference and influence because the state cannot assure equality
of treatment.
New forms of control and surveillance. Producing a recomposition of the state, of
public and private power.
Corruption
The following have been major causes of corruption in Pakistan:
a. Flagrant abuse of power by the public office holders.
b. Lack of serious programme of combating corruption in the country. The investigative/
watch-dog agencies could not develop as per the aspirations of the public.
c. Elected government’s perpetual failure to develop proper ethical and business standards
for the public and private sector.
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d. Political leaders’ incompetence and betrayal of public trust with penchant for self-
enrichment.
e. Lack of transparency in the government’s decision-making process.
f. Lengthy and cumbersome procedures in the executive system.
g. Weaknesses in the judicial system.
h. Poorly paid salary structure in the public sector.
i. Illiterate, apathetic or ignorant populace, with inadequate public discernment of political
choices.
j. Absence of adequate internal / external controls to prevent bribery. (National
accountability Bureau, 2005)
The poor are directly affected, as access to essential services such as education, health, justice
and individual safety has also become a function of the capacity to make unauthorized
payments. To have access to jobs, access to irrigation water, access to health care, is difficult
if people do not have the necessary means to buy their way through these structures.
Open market economy and liberalisation
Trade liberalisation
While the WTO has been successful in reducing the overall level of tariffs with increased
transparency and greater market access, the majority of the developing countries, with the
capacity to increase exports of labour-intensive manufactures, continue to face barriers in
accessing foreign markets. A comparison of the tariff rates on manufactured imports, as a
group applied in selected sectors, confirms that developed countries apply higher import
tariffs to traditional labour-intensive manufactures than to other products. The tariff rates
applied in the developed countries for textiles and clothing and leather are much higher than
those of computers and telecom audios, indicating a clear discrimination against developing
countries exports. This discrimination is further envisaged within the labour intensive
products where tariffs are higher for textiles and footwear – two of the main exports of
Pakistan. This particular factor increases future market access challenges for Pakistan’s
textile exports, comprising 70% of Pakistan’s total exports.
Subsidies in the agricultural sector
The support provided to the agricultural sector through subsidies on inputs support pricing,
credit, loans and export facilities has not resulted in an economically self-sustaining sector.
Hence, withdrawal of subsidies is not acceptable to farmers. Public sector organisations are
unable to recover the cost of their operations and the gap is widening. On the other hand, the
national economy is facing huge debt retiring targets, lack of investor interest, and massive
defence and bureaucratic expenditure. Subsidised irrigation does not seem possible for a
much longer period.
Government policies towards food security
The Government’s main policy objectives are to bring about economic growth, increase
savings and investment, improve physical infrastructure facilitating human resources
development with emphasis on poverty alleviation. Agriculture is playing a critical role in
achieving these objectives but agricultural growth needs to be broad based, include the rural
poor and be environmentally and economically sustainable. The following are the main
policy initiatives taken by the government for enhancing food production, and ensuring food
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security. Most of the policies are aimed at food availability. Access to food and food
utilisation remain under
Food self-sufficiency
As part of the current five-year Plan, the Government has set its target to achieve food self-
sufficiency. This implies increasing production of wheat by 20%. Other objectives include
greater self-sufficiency in vegetable oils through increased oilseed production, development
of high value crops for export, encouraging value added in the rural areas, and conserving
the natural resource base. Although the targets are technically achievable, policy decisions
need to be taken and incentives to be provided to the farmers at the grassroots.
A National Programme for Poverty Alleviation and Income Generation has been composed
in consultation with the UN. The main elements of this programme are:
- Accelerated school enrolment focusing on girls
- Reduce young child mortality
- Reduce young child malnutrition
- Reduce maternal mortality
- Reduce caloric based poverty
- Farms to Markets roads
- Micro credit
- Canal lining
- Rural Water Support Programme
- Development of the Sewerage system
Farming sector
In 1991, the Government launched a Productivity Enhancement Programme (PEP) aimed at
raising the output and incomes of the farming sector. The PEP includes a number of elements
such as sale of gypsum (to combat salinity) at subsidized rates; and improved supply of
quality certified seed, sprinkler irrigation for high value crops, implements for deep tillage,
fractional tube wells and improve linkages between research and extension. This resulted in
a positive trend for increased agriculture production. However, the achievement was not
sustained and the programme either stopped or lacked operational funds.
Water management
The government has taken a series of decisions aimed at making fundamental changes in the
way water is supplied and managed. In the case of surface water, it has been decided to
increase the role of farmers in the management of the canal system through the creation and
strengthening of Water Users’ Associations and “Public utilities” to manage irrigation at a
canal command level. The Government is also promoting more efficient use of groundwater
by promoting better regulation and the use of new technologies such as fractional tube-wells.
Public tube wells in fresh groundwater areas are being privatised. In order to control
flooding, watershed management programmes are being implemented in the important
catchment areas. These are important and essential decisions but its success will largely
depend on its implementation in a serious way. All these policy interventions should be
done through the communities with their full participation if they are to be successful and
sustainable.
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Promoting export of agriculture commodities
Pakistan has comparative advantage in cotton and rice and the removal of major export
restrictions on these crops would result in higher export volumes. Pakistan has the potential
to increase production of wheat to reduce its imports. This will require improved
technological interventions and incentives to the farmers through increased support price
and timely availability of inputs. (UN, 2000)
Specific groups affected
Specific groups that may face food insecurity can be distinguished based on biraderi (kinship),
caste, ethnicity, hereditary occupational group, access to land ownership and productive
resources, and gender. According to DFIDs study on social exclusion (2003), the following
groups are distinguished: low caste groups, women (female headed households, female
children, young women and stigmatised females) , the disabled, kammis (low castes),
children and minority ethnic groups (in the northern areas).
For these groups, the most important barriers to get out of poverty include:
Access to Education
Education is the most significant factor distinguishing the poor from the non-poor. This has
implications for social exclusion in the case of low castes where they are excluded from
access to educational facilities. However, sometimes even a low-caste origin person manages
to get access to education, where they are either the focus of economic jealousy (and often
harassment and victimisation); or are still excluded from social gatherings and interactions
on the basis of their birth.
Exclusion from Access to Land & Water
The current concentration of land holdings is important both because it means that limited
assets go to the poor, but also because it leaves open vast possibilities for exploitation and
abuse, which are unlikely to ever get effective regulation. Size of landholding is also an
important variable in distinguishing the poor from the non-poor.
Access to Effective Safety Nets
Current relief programmes do not reach the needy. A reform in existing safety nets is
required. Furthermore, lack of access to social capital results in an exclusion from a vital
form of (non-formal) support for poor households in both urban and rural areas.
Exclusion from Decision-making & Service Institutions
Poor communities need greater access to key decision-making institutions. However, the
redistribution of power from the wealthy elite in rural Pakistan to the poor, particularly
women, is a daunting task. Stakeholders mention that service departments (forestry,
agriculture, irrigation, revenue, WAPDA) ignore the poor; are ineffective; corrupt; and help
only the wealthy.
Exclusion from Access to Political Capital & Power
Throughout Pakistan, there is a concentration of political capital in the hands of the few.
However, their identity varies from area to area – both rural-urban, and between provinces.
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Those to have least political capital are often minority tribes and clans, people from low
castes and especially women.
Exclusion from Access to Development Interventions
Patron-client relations including political factionalism, and caste, can influence who obtains
access to development schemes. Caste is an important determinant of poverty status; and a
cause of social exclusion across Pakistan. Low castes are among the poorest of the poor,
suffering extreme discrimination and deprivation, though arguably for class-based, as well
as caste-based reasons. They lack rights; are, compelled to obey the orders of “notables”, or
face dire consequences; are very vulnerable, and given no respect; are considered as
fundamentally unequal; are dominated by other higher status castes. Kammis have no assets,
no role in decision making, low cultural status, a stigmatised group identity, and with
livelihoods dependent on the larger society.
Exclusion on the Basis of Ethnicity & Tribal Identity
Being from a minority or less powerful ethnic group such as the Domes or the Gujjars in the
Northern Areas, or the Dotani or Sulaiman Khel tribes in Southern Waziristan in FATA,
results in exclusion from access to, or deprivation of the most basic rights. In FATA, tribal
identity strongly determines access to fundamental rights: minority tribes are discriminated
against due to their low share in the tribal nikkat system under which rights of access to and
control over resources and services are apportioned on the basis of the number of warriors in
a tribe. Non-influential tribes and clans are more likely to be poor.
Gender-Based Exclusion
Women’s access to, and control over resources and assets is very limited in comparison to
that of men. They have low – if any – access to decision-making; minimal access to justice;
and low social status. Women are excluded from access to basic government services either
through supply-side failures, such as lack of provision of school facilities for girls; or
demand-side constraints such as the low value placed on female education within many
families and communities. Similarly, women are denied their full rights to health care due to
lack of female medical staff in context where social norms require women to be treated by
women.
Exclusion Based on Age & Life Cycle Position
The very young, the very old, and those without social support have less access to education,
good food and nutrition. Female children have less access than male children. (Hooper,
2003).
Options for linking and learning, identification of relevant institutes
International organisations:
FAO: Have a special programme on food security (SPFS) in Pakistan, with a number of
activities. http://www.fao.org/SPFS/ASIA/index_en.asp
WFP: The world food programme is in Pakistan involved in improving access to food for
women.
http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/indexcountry.asp?region=5§ion=9&sub_section=5&co
untry=586
UNICEF's focus is on children under the age of 18 and women. www.unicef.org/pakistan
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WHO (World Health Organisation): programmes are targeted at strengthening of nutrition
education, food safety, promotion of occupational health, and water supply and sanitation.
http://www.who.int/countries/pak/en/ or http://www.whopak.org/default.htm
UNDP: working on poverty reduction and gender, governance and environment.
http://www.un.org.pk/undp/
USAid: working on health care, education and an accountable government
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/countries/pakistan/
DFID: works mostly in the Punjab and NWFP, and is concentrating on 1. increased incomes
for the poor 2. improved service delivery of education, health and population services to the
poor and 3. greater accountability of the state to its citizens.
International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Has an office in Lahore, and many years
of experience in irrigation, river basin management, health issues of wastewater in Pakistan.
www.cgiar.iwmi.org
Civil society:
SDPI Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad www.sdpi.org working on
gender issues, water and health.
Parc: Pakistan Agricultural Research Council. Conducting research on crops, natural
resources, animal husbandry, and horticulture www.parc.gov.pk
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics www.pide.org.pk A very broad working field.
Working on poverty reduction and economic development, but also have some publications
on food security and livelihoods.
Pakistan Voluntary Health and Nutrition Association www.pavhna.org Working on
women’s and adolescents issues in the field of health and nutrition throughout Pakistan.
The Lok Sanjh foundation is working on food security and sovereignty in Pakistan.
http://www.loksanjh.org/
Asia Foundation: http://www.asiafoundation.org/Locations/pakistan.html.Working in
Pakistan on citizen-led reforms in democratic governance and institutional change.
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Options for improvement of the food security situation
Natural resources management
Water/irrigation:
1. Fair Indus river system water policies should be developed and implemented based
on valid Sindh-Punjab agreements to ban construction of any structures upstream
until downstream needs of the lower Indus basin are met.
2. A study should be conducted to establish the water needs downstream. In the
interim, 10 MAF of water or more if needed should be released year round below the
Kotri barrage to meet the demands of the Indus delta and the coastal region.
3. A new agreement should be developed that must recognize the internationally
accepted lower riparian rights and ensure sufficient water availability in the lower
basin and the ecological balance of the River Indus and the Indus delta. International
monitoring and dispute arbitration should be included within the agreement to
resolve disputes within the boundaries of international laws.
Farmers in Sindh and Baluchistan can make more efficient use of available water resources.
They sometimes have the tendency to over-irrigate due to ignorance of actual crop-water
requirements. Therefore, there is a need for education to enhance the benefits of available
water supplies, and to optimise water use efficiency rainfall resumes. Most of the farmers in
Baluchistan still use karez groundwater irrigation to flood their fields. Farmers should be
encouraged to use more water-efficient irrigation methods such as pressurized irrigation
systems. Experiments on vegetable crops in Baluchistan have shown that drip irrigation has
2.4 times higher water use efficiency over furrow irrigation.
Farmers should be encouraged to use water harvesting including more water-storage
structures both small and large. This should begin with the collection and storage of every
drop of rainwater in household cisterns, wells and check dams. There is a need to give more
attention to the water harvesting techniques, diversion of ephemeral streams and spate
irrigation. In many areas farmers do not have enough expertise to get maximum benefits
from these systems. For these areas, the government should set up special extension services
to extend technical assistance to the local farmers for improving rainwater-harvesting
structures.
Drinking water solutions
Research suggests that making it possible for people to pump irrigation seepage water into
large storage tanks in their houses—thereby ensuring a continuous supply of water for
drinking, sanitation and hygiene—would greatly reduce the incidence of diarrhoea,
especially when combined with a campaign to promote better hygiene.
Provision of credit
Due to the financial limitations, the small farmers are largely dependent on credit to procure
agriculture inputs. The existing credit procurement system is complicated and not in easy
access to small farmers. There is an immediate need to simplify such procedures. The
agriculture loan should be broad based, and flexible enough to provide credit for variety of
agriculture related activities. Credit should be extended to the rural non-farm households,
including rural poor, landless farmers and women for their income generation with group
collateral. This will require an effective system of need assessment and monitoring by the
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government for its proper use to ensure that the money is utilized for the requested activity.
Effort should be made to ensure low cost intervention for mid to high level output.
Income diversification
In order to raise the financial capability of the poor, especially women, to have purchasing
power for the essential food items, diversification of income both from on- farm and off-
farm should be encouraged. There is great scope and potential of increasing yields of short-
term cash crops, like vegetable items produced and marketed in the nearest urban areas. This
is especially the case with lands situated in the urban and peri-urban areas where proximity
to large towns enables an efficient marketing strategy. This can be further integrated into
livestock and small ruminant development. For landless people both men and women, it
would be required to provide proper skill development to build their capacity for income
generation activities. The income from those activities could be used to have access to food
and to improve their livelihood. (UN, 2000).
Improvement in nutrition
In order to provide the required proteins and vitamins, it will be important to promote
household vegetable production in the form of kitchen gardens. Poor and small farmers do
not have the financial resources to buy these items from the open market, and they heavily
rely on cereal, which fulfils the caloric requirement of the body, but lack the nutritional part
of it. Growing vegetables and pulses will compensate for the nutritional value of the food.
Similarly pulses can compensate for meat, which is generally beyond the purchasing power
of poor farmers.
Poultry is another important protein source, which can be promoted for improving the
nutritional aspect of the diet. In this regard rural poultry should be brought as potential
intervention for the rural areas. This is known as a widow's industry, which is positive to
provide this socially excluded group with additional income. The peri-urban areas could
certainly take advantage of this. The infrastructure and the knowledge base exist. So the
sector can operate at many levels. Small ruminants are reared mainly by the small farmers
and landless. For them it is a source of cash reserve, as well as nutritional resource. The
possible interventions would include providing access to credit for such interventions. Also
the selection of proper animals according to the terrain and feed availability is helpful.
Provision of a physical and institutional Infrastructure
Rural infrastructure and human resource development have the attributes of "public goods",
especially in a society composed of a large number of small farmers and poor people. The
provision of an effective rural infrastructure, particularly rural roads, electricity, drinking
water, and educational and health facilities is one of the most important instruments through
which the government can have a direct impact on relaxing the constraints faced by the
farmers and the non-farming poor rural people. Good rural infrastructure and adequate
institutional capacity are essential for the transition from a resource- based to a technology-
based agriculture. Hence, investment in these areas should be part of the core elements of
government strategy for sustainable development and food security. (UN, 2000).
Changing informal institutions
To change the informal infrastructure/institutions is more difficult. A start can be made by:
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Helping people to change on their own terms – from the inside – e.g.: Islamic
feminism
Change on others’ terms: Exposure of hypocrisy and contradictions: like for example
the child abuse scandals in Catholic church
Contractual change: New standards of accountability – making power-holders
answer to those affected by their actions. (This requires subalterns to be empowered
in other domains).
Strategies against social exclusion of the poor and minorities
Strategies to socially include minority groups and the poor masses can be found in four
areas: democracy, access to justice and rule of law, institutional change and education and
capacity building. Only the latter two areas will be discussed here.
Pro-inclusion institutional change
Land: addressing land tenure rights, land administration, implementation, and expansion in
the coverage of existing legislation; a land survey and land settlement study in selected
provinces; creation of an International Panel on Land Law to work on cadastral and land
registration issues.
Gender: building the capacity of women in local bodies to play a comprehensive role in
identifying and implementing development programmes and take up women’s issues in
their forums; placing the issue of women’s exclusion onto the political agenda by women
parliamentarians; a national community education programme on rights; addressing
employment issues; provide quality schooling for both boys and girls through post-primary
level; and undertake rights-based literacy initiatives especially for the 18-25 age group.
Credit: Work with existing agricultural, enterprise development and credit institutions to
improve access to credit for opening up off-farm employment opportunities; for improved
access to on-farm credit overall, and particularly for women; and for improved targeting.
(Hooper, 2003).
Education and capacity building
Support educational measures which address social exclusion including rights-based
literacy; promotion of a more tolerant ethos in both curriculum content of all schools, and
in teacher training.
• Take forward rapidly the use of educational activities via the web, which also has strong
potential for youth inclusion.
• Develop a strategy to use the media and curricula content for education to facilitate
inclusion.
• Support efforts to mainstream the disabled in schools, and into society; support measures
to raise awareness on disability
• Support capacity-building for research on social exclusion
• Support and facilitate the creation of independent fora for intellectual leadership on social
exclusion, and build up a debate. (Hooper, 2003)
Corruption
While there are deep seated difficulties that have to be dealt with when trying to improve the
performance of the government, there are some starting points:
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Providing stronger links with international norms and standards for political
accountability and effectiveness.
Supporting the demand side: for the private sector, public opinion and civil society
organisations to become better informed and more assertive in calling the
government to account.
Advocacy: support NGOs engaged in human rights work (especially women’s
rights), good governance and environmental issues.
Strengthen the private sector. Increased support of small and medium enterprises,
which have contributed to rising and diversifying livelihoods of the rural poor.
Another important topic needing improvement is the coordination across the
Government of Pakistan (GoP) and development partners’ projects and programs so
as to assist the GoP in integrating major elements of its food security programs that
are separated by ministerial and development partner boundaries. Since these are
large, multi-year programs, there are likely to be large benefits from coordinating
activities.
There is also a need for coordination with government offices at other than the
national level. Local government at district level might be best-placed to decide how
to best integrate activities operationally in an overall national food security
framework.
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NEPAL
Background
Nepal’s food security is in a vulnerable state. In a broad sense, the seasonal and transitory
types of food insecurity are everywhere in Nepal. The magnitude and intensity however,
differ by households, depending on their resource endowments. The households having
inadequate resource endowments to produce, purchase or barter adequate food for year
round are stricken by poverty and are food insecure and vulnerable. They are affected by
natural hazards such as hail storm; landslide and floods; crop, human and animal disease
out breaks; and human activities such as price fluctuations; changes in government policies
and internal conflicts further aggravate the situation.
Though cases of death due to hunger have not been registered in recent days, being forced to
eat less than required quantity, consuming low quality food, and missing meals are
pervasive problems. Over 50% of people in Nepal consume less than adequate food, and
only 1.8% consume more than adequate (CBS, 1998). Variations, however, exist between
rural and urban settings, ecological belts, occupations, genders, and age groups. Rural
people are more food insecure than urban people. Households consuming less than adequate
are more common in the mountain belt (63%), followed by the hill (55%) and terai belts
(45%). Food consumption is associated with poverty, and poverty incidence is highest in
mountain (56%), then the hills (41%), and the terai (42%). Within these ecological belts, the
west is more food insecure than the east. Similarly, poverty is also more in rural (44%) than
in urban (23%) areas (CBS, 1998). By occupation, the most food insecure are those who are
still continuing traditional occupations such as iron smithing (Kami), leather smithing
(Sarki), tailoring (Damai), pot making (Kumal), singing (Gaine), dancing (Badi); farming less
than 0.5 hectare of land, portering non-tourist items, agricultural labour, and share cropping
(FAO, 2002).
Spatial dimension
Poverty, and therefore food insecurity, has an important spatial dimension, with the Central
Region having only half the poverty incidence found in the Far Western Region. This is
partly because of the remoteness of the Far Western areas, but more because of an unusually
unequal landholding structure and the feudalistic social relationships that prevail in the Far
West, and indeed the Midwest. The close relationship between altitude and food production
potential is repeated with poverty. With just one exception, within a given region, the
mountains are poorer than the hills, and the hills are poorer than the Terai. (Gill 2003).
Manangis, a tribal group in a mountainous area, are a case in point. They are a traditional
trading community, and are so successful at this that their district ranks as the least
disadvantaged in the country in terms of the poverty and deprivation index. In other
mountain districts tourism has played a growing role in bringing new livelihood options,
making these specific areas less food insecure.
Primary causes of food insecurity in Nepal
Natural resources management
Land ownership
Most of the rural poor in Nepal are landless. Access to land is essential for the food security
of the family in a situation where state has not been able to provide food security to people.
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Land is also essential for generating self-employment. Relying on the market alone for
employment generation in Nepal is not viable as markets are imperfect, and, due, to various
reasons, there are fluctuations in creation of employment opportunities. The economic
recession is particularly difficult for the poor and landless people.
Therefore, in a country where employment is not guaranteed and where state social security
does not exist at all, access to land is important for the livelihood of the landless and poor
households. Addressing the issue of landlessness is more important as this is
disproportionately borne by the marginalized Dalit communities. Among the absolutely
landless, 22% are Dalits although they are only 13%in the national population.
According to the National planning Commission (1998), over 70% of peasants own less than
one hectare of arable land in Nepal. Likewise, the Human Development Report 1998
mentions that the bottom 40% of the population own only 9% of the arable land, whereas the
top 6% own around 33%.
According to the census of 2001, 25% of the households own hardly any land. They are
considered agricultural landless. The prevalence of landlessness is higher in Terai districts
than in the hill districts.
A large section of the farming population is also denied the basic tenancy rights. The Badal
High Commission for Land Reform 1995 states that more than 450,000 tenant households are
not registered. Even the registered ones have not been able to avail of their rights as tenants.
The Department of Land Reform and Management compiled data in 35 districts (2000/01)
which revealed that there are 2,66,261 registered tenants as eligible claimant of tenancy rights
but they have not been able to do so yet. It is estimated that around 1 million poor household
(the majority are Dalits) have been deprived of their legitimate rights over land resources
(Basnet 2004).
Land degradation
For subsistence farmers in Nepal, the consequences of land degradation for food security are
direct: less food with more efforts, and even: moving out. But nowadays, most farming
households, however, do take part in food trade. As producers of food, degradation leads to
lower yields with more efforts, meaning either less food or less income. As consumers, they
can buy food if they have money. Degradation may also lead to increased cost of living and
to higher food prices. Household food security is affected also in the second case, albeit in a
more complex manner.
Water resources
As state agencies and departments fail to grapple with the increasing pressures of
population, urbanisation and competing demands for water, the stress on fresh water
sources is on the rise. Current approaches have not ensured fairness in creating secured
access to water. Equity problems exist both within and among communities and among
regions. Externalities associated with resource development such as groundwater overdraft,
vulnerability to flooding, pollution and displacement have hurt the poor, particularly the
women, and those in the social and economic margins.
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Drinking water and sanitation
Problems of inequitable food access are compounded by poor food utilisation. Standards of
sanitation and hygiene are low, as is access to safe drinking water. Marginalized and low
caste communities throughout Nepal have poorer access to water than the high caste, due to
prevailing social norms, so that those who are already disadvantaged are condemned to
suffer further from poor sanitation and water-borne ailments. Only one in three families has
a latrine (even fewer in the rural areas), and even where there is a latrine only around 50% of
family members use it. Many institutions, including schools, lack sanitary latrines. An
estimated 1,500 MT of faeces are discharged into fields and waterways daily, contributing to
10 million episodes of diarrhoea among children under five. At any given point in time, two
out of every five babies are suffering from diarrhoea (Gill 2003). The result is poor food
utilization and serious nutrient loss. Intestinal worm infestation is also associated with poor
hygiene and sanitation. It contributes to vitamin A deficiency, iron deficiency disorders and
growth failure by preventing children from absorbing nutrients from their already
inadequate diets (Gill 2003).
Nutrition
In Nepal, the nutritional status of mothers and children under five is traditionally poor.
Many children do not get enough to eat and therefore do not grow well, become ill and may
die. The main reason for this is poor nutrition. Current statistics estimate that over half the
children in Nepal are stunted and approximately 11% wasted (Gerlin Hernandez Bonilla
2003). Anthropometric deficits vary strikingly with geographic regions and locality. For
example, the incidence of malnutrition has been found to be higher in rural as opposed to
urban areas, and in the Mountains and Hills as opposed to the Terai (FAO, 1998). In terms of
the development regions, the Mid and Far West have long been recognized as regions that
require more attention.
Extreme topography and a complex socio-economic fabric have long contributed to seasonal
food shortages, and hence widespread, chronic food insecurity. Many foods cannot be grown
in the hill and mountain areas, and therefore must be imported from other areas. However,
the distribution of surplus production to the deficit regions of the hills and mountains is
limited by the high transportation costs and a lack of access to market areas. A high degree
of inequality in land ownership and rapid population growth has generated increasing
poverty, exacerbating the problem furthermore, as has the political instability and conflict of
recent years.
It seems that especially the Mid and Far West of Nepal are subject to severe malnutrition. A
study of World Vision ( revealed that high levels of acute malnutrition are present in all
districts of the Mid West. 13%, 11% and 12% of children assessed in Jumla, Jajarkot and
Kalikot Districts respectively were found to be either moderately or severely acutely
malnourished. In comparison, the incidence of acute malnutrition in Lamjung District (4.6%)
was far less.
Incidence of acute malnutrition greater than or equal to 15% is considered a severe public
health concern. Extremely high levels of chronic malnutrition were revealed in the three
districts of the Mid West Region. In comparison to the incidence of chronic malnutrition in
Lamjung (37%), a level that in itself is considered high, the incidence of chronic malnutrition
in Jumla, Jajarkot and Kalikot were estimated at 78%, 70% and 83% respectively. The World
Health Organisation considers an incidence of equal to or greater than 40% a severe public
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health concern. These figures are also high in comparison with the national estimates of
chronic malnutrition, which at present is approximately 50%.
Gender
Intrahousehold food distribution
It is estimated that women are more food insecure than men. Though it is the woman who
distributes food, she usually eats last - whatever is left. In many places, she distributes more
to her children and husband, and consequently consumes less than them. Usually, more
food is given to those who go for work and earn. Old members are not in the priority list for
some households. Some households, however, provide food first to old people as well as
children.
There is also evidence of intra-household nutritional discrimination against girls in Nepal, as
they score below boys on a range of nutritional and survival indicators. This reflects the low
social status of females, male dominance and male preference within many segments of
Nepalese (and indeed South Asian) society.
Health
High child mortality, high death rate, high maternal death rate and low life expectancy at
birth are the characteristic features of Nepal. Discriminatory social and cultural practices, a
limited and ineffective health delivery system and disproportionate impact of poverty mean
that the health status of Nepalese women is below that of men. The male/female mortality
differential indicates that women have lower levels of welfare, with inferior access to health
care and nutrition than men. It is shown that child mortality rate is significantly higher
among girls than among boys, and this is despite the fact that during infancy boys are
biologically the weaker sex. There is also neglect of girls in health care and feeding which is
reflected in higher prevalence of malnutrition and lower nutritional status. Stunting is the
primary indicator of nutritional status of the children, and in Nepal girls are more likely to
be stunted or severely stunted than boys. (FAO 2003).
Employment and income diversification
There are limited employment opportunities in local areas. Disguised unemployment is
rampant. The underemployment rate for Nepal was 47% in 1995/96 with higher weight in
rural areas (48%) than in urban area (38%). People from mountains and hills out-migrate
seasonally, mostly to India and to cities of Nepal. Nowadays, migrating to Arab countries in
search of a job is an increasing trend, although extreme-hunger households cannot collect the
money required to go. In Nepal, people belonging to the “hunger” and “extreme-hunger”
categories sometimes carry human loads. As such jobs are not abundant, wages are low and
jobs are not regularly found. Though cases of HIV/AIDS are rare, almost all people suffer
from common diseases such as bronchitis, anaemia, headache, stomach pain and gastritis,
which ultimately reduce their labour productivity and wages.
Access to Credit
Given severe liquidity problems among poorer households, adoption of improved
technology depends critically on availability of, and access to, agricultural credit. As
elsewhere in the developing world, household demand for credit in Nepal is met through
two sources. The first is the formal sector, comprising banks and co-operative societies and
the second is informal, comprising traditional moneylenders and relatives. Research (FAO
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2003) shows that the proportion of borrowers obtaining credit from institutional sources such
as commercial banks correlates positively and strongly with farm size. Smaller farmers are
correspondingly dependent on non-institutional sources. For all farmers the largest single
source of borrowing remains the non-institutional sector.
Trade liberalisation
Open markets and free trade, encroachment of multi-national corporations, and privatisation
of services are some of the main phenomena of globalisation. Globalisation in Nepal, which
started in the mid-1980s and has become a focal point of government since 1992, has not
shown positive results in terms of creating employment opportunities, enhancing economic
growth or increasing food security. During this period, the growth rate of major cereals has
been negative; the national food balance situation remained erratic; and the price rise of
some important inputs has been higher than the price rise of major food grains. This gloomy
picture in agriculture has largely affected the food security of poor people in Nepal within
the period of globalisation. The negative effect of globalisation among poor nations and
people has also been the experience of other countries. The process of globalisation, has
worsened the condition of more than two billion poor people in newly globalised countries.
Apart from this global trend, the people in the remote areas of this ‘geographically
disadvantaged’ country are further marginalized due to high transport costs for import and
export of goods and services. Looking at the bad infrastructure and poor locations, it can be
predicted that it would take a long time for poor and marginal people to become
economically integrated into the global market and improve their food security and reduce
their hunger.
Conflict and food security in Nepal
The Maoists started a ‘Peoples War’ in 15 February 1996 and sought to overthrow feudal
institutions, including monarchy, and establish a Maoist state. The royal family massacre in
2001 created further instability. The king eventually seized greater powers, suspended
democratic institutions and intensified military action. After a period of crisis and the
promptings of a democratic movement, the Maoists joined peace talks in November 2005 and
in January 2007, the parties and the Maoists agreed on a new Interim Constitution of Nepal,
withdrawing all powers from the king.
The conflict has displaced rural people and reduced the movement of people, goods and
services; as a result, the food distribution and market systems, production and consumption
systems, service provision, and implementation of development activities related to food
security have all been adversely affected. As the restrictions on movement of people and
goods were increased, remote rural areas became de-linked from the wider market economy,
forcing them to become more self-reliant. This decreased food security in areas where local
production was insufficient and the purchasing power of local people is low. Mugu has been
most affected by the conflict, followed by Dhading and Sunsari. Currently the situation
should be better, but supporting information is hard to find.
Root causes of food insecurity
Institutional context
A number of social institutions in Nepal have been established by communities to perform
specific economic, social and religious activities. Many of them have existed since time
immemorial. In addition, the country has a long tradition of creating trusts to build temples,
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shrines, inns and shelters and establish schools, orphanages and poorhouses. Traditionally,
the deeds establishing such trusts would identify trustees to organize and manage the
establishment on a voluntary or nominal payment basis. Agricultural land or cash would be
set aside to provide for their operation and maintenance. Specific process and rules were
established to use the resources and perform specified functions. Thus, the entire
establishments were operated as a voluntary trust, also called Guthi.
In contrast to these indigenous institutions, officially registered NGOs are of recent origin.
The pre-1951 regime did not encourage the organization of NGOs or CBOs, fearing that they
might indulge in political activities or religious conversions. It did not oppose either the
establishment of genuinely community-based institutions or the perpetuation and expansion
of existing philanthropic organizations. On the contrary, the available evidence shows that
the state or the ruling class sponsored a number of Guthis, by contributing both in cash and
in kind. They covered a wide variety of activities addressing the needs of the poor and the
destitute. Viewed in absolute terms and from a purely food security and poverty alleviation
perspective, it could be said that traditionally the situation was not so negative. Yet the
regime did not recognize the right of the poor to food security. Nor was there any legal
instrument that ensured equality – which is also valid today to a great extent. (FAO 2003)
There is no doubt that NGOs have tremendous potential for assisting the government in
carrying out its development functions, particularly in covering those communities and areas
that the government has not been able to reach. However, lack of clarity and uniformity in
the roles and functions of NGOs and in their mode of operation has often resulted in
duplication of efforts and inefficiency of resource use and at various times has created
confusion about the government’s development approach. Lack of clarity about roles and
responsibilities of, and modalities of collaboration between, local government bodies and
NGOs, local government bodies are largely bypassed by NGOs in planning and
implementing local level development activities. This has resulted in work duplication,
resource use inefficiency and unequal distribution of development activities. Thus there is an
urgent need for roles, responsibilities and modalities of GO/NGO collaboration to be defined
and clarified.
Social institutions
Among the social institutions which influence poverty and food security issues, perhaps the
most influential are the legal provisions and social practices concerning, the caste system,
marriage, responsibility accorded to women regarding upkeep of their children, and in
certain areas, those related to Guthi. Although the caste system is now illegal, Nepalese
society is still caste-ridden and there are taboos against certain food items along caste line.
Extravagant expenditure during marriages and on account of marriage is on the rise, and is
leading to heavy indebtedness, especially among the poor. Although legally in force, the law
barring such extravagance is yet to become effective.
Government policies on food security
The government’s chief policy instrument for addressing the problem of declining food
availability is the Agriculture Perspective Plan. The APP has formed the agricultural sections
of both the previous (Ninth) and the current (Tenth) Five Year Development Plans and is
very much growth-, rather than poverty-focused. Its basic aim is to boost the agricultural
growth rate to 5% (in 2005/6) and then to maintain it at level throughout the remainder of the
15-year Plan period. Poverty reduction is viewed essentially as a consequence of this growth,
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and is to be achieved through falling food prices, increasing farm incomes (the two are seen
as compatible because of envisaged efficiency gains in both production and marketing), and
the generation of employment opportunities for the rural poor through multipliers that
rapidly expand the rural non-farm economy.
An assessment of Nepal’s recent agricultural performance found that, not only has the APP’s
envisaged crop diversification not occurred, but that the share of cereals in crop production
has actually increased. This has resulted in a post-APP increase in per capita cereals
production. Many commentators argue that this growth coincided with favourable weather
conditions across the Gangetic floodplain, and that the improvement in Nepal was
attributable to this, rather than the APP. Meanwhile the way in which the APP has been
implemented has concentrated official service delivery mechanisms on the more favoured
parts of districts, thus, exacerbating, rural inequality.
In sharp contrast with the APP, the Tenth Plan (2003–8) and it’s associated Poverty
Reduction Strategy Paper and Medium Term Expenditure Framework, view broad-based
growth and employment generation as the principle means of transforming economic
development into an opportunity for both alleviating poverty and simultaneously
strengthening social and political stability (Gill 2003). There are four strategies:
1. High, sustainable and broad-based economic growth, the objective of which is to stimulate
the ‘resurgence of broad-based economic activities’;
2. Social sector and infrastructure development, the objective of which is ‘enhancement of
productivity of human resources and communities in a sustainable way’;
3. Targeted programmes, the objective of which is the ‘enhancement of the productive
capacity of marginalized, deprived, ignored, remote, weak, and alienated communities and
regions in a sustainable way’;
4. Good governance, the objective of which is the ‘establishment of sustainable good
governance in the national development process on the basis of transparency, accountability,
multi-faceted decision process, and decentralization’.
If successfully implemented, all of these policies could contribute importantly to improved
food security, particularly in the shape of better food access among the poor and
disadvantaged, but it remains to be seen whether the implementation capacity exists to push
through the necessary reforms.
Donor support for agriculture in Nepal has been falling for many years, and has only
recently begun to show signs of ‘bottoming out’ and possibly growing once more. DFID is
one of the few donors to have continued to support agricultural development in general and
APP implementation in particular – especially in helping to make it more pro-poor. Five
DFID supported projects/programmes presently support APP objectives, while another is in
process of start-up. Other than DFID, the Asian Development Bank is the strongest supporter
of agricultural development in Nepal, with programmes in livestock development and crop
diversification. ADB has been instrumental in streamlining the government’s food
distribution programme for the remote districts, which had long been criticised for
supplying only government servants and influential individuals.
Outside of the agricultural sector, useful donor-supported work is being done to address the
problem of poor food quality, micronutrient deficiencies in the diet and poor food utilisation.
UNICEF is supporting national programmes in sanitation, safe water supply, girls’
education, and non-food aspects of nutrition (vitamin A capsules, de-worming treatment for
children, iron-folate tablets for pregnant women and progress towards universal salt
iodisation). The World Food Programme works with government to improve food access for
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the disadvantaged, including mothers and babies (mother and child healthcare),
schoolchildren (school meals, food for education) and refugees from Bhutan. A number of
donors, including DFID, Danida and GTZ, channel food to the needy through WFP
interventions, such as food for work. Some of these interventions are used to improve rural
access, thereby addressing the perennial relationship between remoteness and food
insecurity.
Specific groups affected
Women
Women, particularly pregnant and lactating women are susceptible to nutritional insecurity.
The women who look after the kitchen are very commonly food-insecure, as they eat only
the leftovers, which are in short supply during the food insecure season of February/March
and July/August. In the period directly after delivery, women tend to be better nourished
than usual, as they sometimes receive special food for a period of 3-11 days, depending on
household resources. Other than this, pregnant an lactating women do not receive enough
food to cover their additional nutritional needs. Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA) is by far the
most common nutritional problem in Nepal. Women and girls are susceptible to IDA, and
the situation has not improved appreciably in the past 15-20 years.
Children
Children are major victims of food insecurity. More than a third of Nepalese children are
born with low birth-weight, i.e. below 2.5 kg, indicating that their nutritional status is
already seriously compromised at birth. Low birth-weight is primarily a result of the
mother’s poor health and nutritional status, with most pregnant women being malnourished
and anaemic. The nutritional status of almost all children, which is poor at birth, actually
deteriorates after weaning: half of all young children in Nepal are chronically malnourished,
suffering from both low food intake and lack of essential micronutrients in the diet.
Inadequate intake of vitamin A, iron, and iodine is particularly widespread and damaging. If
these deficiencies persist to age two (and they normally do) the child’s growth and
development are irrevocably compromised. Moreover, despite improvements in health care,
the situation with respect to micronutrient deficiency among children has not improved
much in the past two decades (UNICEF 2003). Among pre-school children, the overall IDA
rate in 1998 was 78%, while no less than 90% of 6–11 month old babies are anaemic.
Options for linking and learning, identification of relevant institutes.
International Organisations:
FAO Nepal: http://www.fao.org/world/nepal/. FAO is co-operating in operationalising the
Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP), which was approved in 1995 and covers up to the year
2015, and the Tenth Plan or Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2002-2007).
WFP: The Nepal Country Programme aims to bring about sustainable improvements in food
security for the most disadvantaged, particularly women and children, in highly food-
insecure areas. The main programme elements are 1.) support for community infrastructure
projects that will improve access and enhance the self-help capabilities of poor communities
in remote areas; 2.) School feeding to encourage enrolment and attendance; 3.) Nutritional
support for mothers and children using community-based and outreach services that will
provide information and training in maternal and child health care.
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IFPRI: http://www.ifpri.org/country/nepal.asp Working on property rights and collective
action in natural resource management and water resource allocation: productivity and
environmental impacts.
DFID Nepal: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/countries/asia/nepal.asp DFID’s Nepal County
Assistance Plan (CAP) 2004 – 2008 is based on the Nepal Government’s poverty reduction
strategy. DFID seeks to reduce poverty and social exclusion establishing the basis for lasting
peace. DFID is the second largest donor to Nepal.
UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nepal.html Unicef is working on child
nutrition, basic education and gender equality.
GTZ Integrated Food security Project. http://www.ifsp-nepal.org.np
Civil society:
Rural Reconstruction Nepal http://www.rrn.org.np RRN works with poor and marginalised
people in rural areas across Nepal to help them meet their basic needs, improve their
livelihoods and build their communities. It is one of the country's largest national non-
governmental organisations with projects in the sectors of health, awareness, education, self-
government and policy advocacy.
United Mission to Nepal (UMN). http://www.umn.org.np Co-operative effort between the
people of Nepal and a large number of Christian organisations from 18 countries in four
different continents. UMN is working on addressing root causes of poverty, addressing
injustice, disaster management, peace and conflict transformation, outside Kathmandu
valley in the mid-hills, Terai and urban areas.
IDE Nepal http://www.ide-international.org/work/nepal.php has been involved in the mass
marketing of low-cost treadle pumps in 11 Terai districts in Nepal since 1987. The program
also pioneered the development of low-cost drip irrigation systems. IDE in Nepal promotes
drip and micro-sprinkler irrigation in 14 hill districts of eastern, western, mid-western, and
far western Nepal. It has also worked to develop multiple use water systems, which allow
villages to control water resources for both domestic use and irrigation.
Community Self-Reliance Centre (CSRC-Nepal). http://www.csrcnepal.org This is a social
movement organization working with tenants and landless poor farmers. CSRC focuses on
land rights and social mobilization through the capacity building of people deprived of land
rights.
Government:
Nepal Agricultural Research council: http://www.narc-nepal.org/
Ministry of agriculture www.moac.gov.np
Ministry of health and population: www.moh.gov.np The present Nutrition Programme in
the Ministry of Health aims to ensure improvement in the overall nutritional status of
vulnerable groups. Major components of the programme include: promotion of
breastfeeding, growth monitoring of children under three years, prevention of iodine
deficiency and vitamin A deficiency disorders, control of anaemia, and nutrition education
for mothers to help them meet the daily nutritional requirements of their children through
locally-available resources.
Options for improvement of food insecurity
The growth- and production-oriented approach of the APP is at the centre of agricultural
sector policy. The APP’s lack of central poverty focus therefore puts agricultural policy at
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odds with other aspects of the IPRSP and the Tenth Plan. This is not simply an equity issue,
but also an agricultural development issue. Because the poor have high marginal propensity
to consume food, pro-poor growth almost automatically translates into growth of the
agricultural market, creating a favourable investment climate which in turn stimulates
agricultural growth. Without market growth it is difficult to see what will drive the APP’s
envisaged rapid and sustained boost to agricultural growth and poverty reduction.
The Nepal Terai is agro-ecologically well-suited to the Green Revolution, but a number of
factors have prevented this potential from being realised. Issues such as fertiliser shortages,
poor water control, and inadequate agricultural technology are addressed in the APP, but
the Plan does not adequately tackle the issue of lack of effective demand for Terai cereals and
other high volume produce. There are no great market prospects for these in India at present,
because Nepal is now a high-cost producer compared with India’s Green Revolution states.
On the basis of comparative advantage, the Terai’s obvious market is the food deficit districts
of the hills and mountains, but a combination of lack of purchasing power in these areas, and
the high transaction costs involved in moving bulky low-value produce to them, constrains
demand, and therefore the potential for increasing food availability from domestic sources.
In Nepal, therefore, issues of food access are closely tied up with issues of food availability.
The above argument points towards a strategy of increasing purchasing power in the hills
and mountains through improving livelihood opportunities, thereby providing a market for
Terai produce and a boost for its productivity. Hill and mountain areas have no comparative
advantage in growing bulky low-value produce for subsistence, and yet much of their food
supply is currently subsistence-dependent. Their comparative advantage lies in producing
high value produce for the market – as has been demonstrated on a small scale by the
introduction and popularisation of high-value horticultural production in the more
accessible hill districts. This has allowed smallholders to switch to crops where they have a
comparative advantage, and to sell these and purchase Terai cereals and other high volume
foodstuffs. Given the huge size of the neighbouring Indian market, there is apparently
almost unlimited scope for expansion here, but much of the produce is perishable and
therefore crucially dependent on good market access. Non-perishable horticultural produce
(such as vegetable seeds) is more suited to the more inaccessible areas. Remote areas actually
have a comparative advantage in high-value seed production, because they represent ‘virgin
territory’, with consequently little danger of cross-pollination by other varieties of the same
crop.
A number of other possibilities exist in remote areas for livelihood enhancement. The annual
Dassain festival generates demand for huge numbers of livestock for sacrifice, which is
presently met largely by imports from Indian and Tibet. There seems no obvious reason why
Nepalese hill and mountain farmers could not gear their livestock production to meet the
demands of this market. There are also possibilities of supplying wool from Baglung sheep
to Nepal’s carpet industry, which requires a supply of this Tibetan-type wool to give its
products their distinctive quality, and whose supply is so difficult otherwise to guarantee.
The NGO sector played a key role in popularising high-value horticulture in the hills, and
the acceptance by government of the need for a pluralistic and decentralised approach to
extension provides an opportunity to further develop a pluralistic decentralised model in
order to enable hill farmers to realise their potential.(Gill 2003)
Lack of assets
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Since participatory poverty assessments identify lack of assets as the prime cause of poverty,
and therefore food insecurity, land reform is an issue that cannot forever remain
unaddressed. Inequality in landholding has been also an underlying theme in the
insurgency. Another asset that could be more effectively mobilized is forestry. Nepal has in
many ways been a trail-blazer in community forestry, especially in the hills, but restrictions
on the type of produce that can be removed from the forest have prevented realisation of the
full potential of community forestry to enhance livelihoods in hill and mountain districts.
Opportunities exist for industries based on sustainable forest use – up to and including
furniture manufacture – to turn out products that would be of sufficiently high value to
absorb relatively high transport costs.
Infrastructure
Clearly, the issue of poor accessibility of many districts, particularly mountain districts, is of
crucial importance. Remoteness need not in itself be a barrier to poverty reduction and food
security. An emerging, and potentially encouraging, approach to increasing accessibility of
remote mountain districts is to route supplies through Tibet, which is largely plateau and has
a much better road transport network than the adjoining mountain districts of Nepal. The
authorities in Tibet are not known to have raised any objection to this practice, but Nepal’s
accession to the WTO will in any case give her the legal right to use Chinese territory as a
transit route. Building access roads to link with Tibet’s road network is crucial to this effort,
and multi-donor supported initiatives, including inputs by DFID, are assisting here. Much of
this ties in with FFW, and so combines improved immediate access to food with longer term
reduction in transaction costs.
Health and nutrition education
The health and sanitation situation of rural Nepal is clearly appalling, particularly for
children.
There is a limit to the extent to which increasing food availability and food access will
improve food security so long as nutrients are denied to those who need them because of
ignorance or mistaken beliefs, and so long as nutrients once consumed remain unavailable
because of factors like diarrhoeal disease or worm infestation. Clearly investment in clean
water and sanitary toilet facilities must go hand-in-hand with health, hygiene and nutrition
education.
There are too many unknowns in the realm of nutrition education. The fact that 10% of
parents do not even give their children water to drink during episodes of diarrhoea when
virtually all of them know of the benefits of oral rehydration, is puzzling. Similarly, the fact
that of the 10% of pregnant women who receive iron supplements only 2% actually take
them for three months or more, and virtually none take them for more than 6 months,
requires urgent investigation. Likewise, the fact that of those with access to a latrine only half
actually use it needs to be investigated. Action without such knowledge is unlikely to be
entirely effective.
Water resources and gender
Micro-irrigation technologies can improve the food and nutritional security of small
cultivator households that have adopted the technology. In a study of the International
Water Management Institute (Upadhyay and Samad, 2004), there was a marked
improvement in household food security and nutritional intake for women small cultivators
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who adopted bucket and drip irrigation for homestead vegetable cultivation. The adoption
of drip and bucket irrigation helped farmers to grow vegetables for household consumption
that were otherwise missing from their daily diets, often using land that had been bare. Diets
improved also due to the additional income from surplus produce being sold in the market.
This additional income remained mostly in the hands of women who were responsible for
bringing it in. It was observed that this particular factor had an impact on food security for
the family, as women tended to prioritise spending on household food items. It was found
that in Nepal where the NGO IDE has worked to promote livelihoods, women farmers once
introduced to drip kits, were able to increase vegetable production in their homesteads. They
also grew vegetables over a larger area and their crops were of better quality and size.
Vegetables became a part of the daily diet of these families, and the women were able to
increase their incomes from selling a portion of their produce.
Improvement of institutional context
In planning and management decisions pertaining to public and quasi-public resources like
protected forests, social forestry, pastures and water bodies, it is of paramount importance
that the poor are empowered so that disadvantaged groups such as landless labourers and
rural women can be involved in a direct and formal way.
To nurture growth of community leadership, opportunities for participation need to be
extended as widely as possible. Those demonstrating potential for leadership need
recognition and respect, but not direct monetary rewards. A very large pool of national and
international NGOs already functioning in rural Nepal have partly assisted in providing
opportunities for community leadership, but they have also created patron-client
dependency relationships. The participatory decision-making processes at a horizontal level
would nurture community leadership and discourage patron-client relationships.
These are of paramount importance for the empowerment of excluded sections of society.
The PRA-based village level analysis carried out in the FAO study (2003) clearly brings out
very encouraging possibilities of involving the poor in decisions affecting them directly.
Consultative district level workshops brought to light the problem that links between the
line agencies and decision-making bodies were weak, as were their links to the village level
and household level groups on whose behalf decisions were being taken. Very few farmers
and household members participated in the district meetings. This link needs to be created
and then carefully nurtured. (FAO 2003).
There is a need for a synthesis between the ‘top-down’ and the ‘bottom-up' approaches to
national planning. The exciting possibilities created by the decision to have the Tenth Plan
approach paper discussed and debated at the district level before finalization, is a step in the
right direction. It is an exciting innovation and needs to be nurtured.
Reforms currently in progress to increase efficiency and accountability of the civil service,
need to retain sensitivity to the issues of transparency, financial discipline, responsiveness
and perceived needs at the grass-root level. Successful models of decentralization are those
that create positive learning effects for all participants and stakeholders, including the
bureaucracy. Development and strengthening of the capacity for planning, monitoring and
co-ordination of programmes at the local level include the need for financial discipline. The
Tenth Plan addresses the issue of mechanisms to ensure effective, sensitive and positive
learning mechanisms in the implementation process. Nepal's own experience shows the
positive contribution of local stakeholder participation in the effective and sustainable
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management and conservation of natural resources systems. This is because local users have
comparative advantage over government agents in managing resources, so that they can
design more efficient rules and more easily monitor and enforce them.
Gender
From village level committees upwards, women should be represented at all levels of
decision making that affect public and quasi-public resource management such as
community and leasehold forestry, management of pasture land, water bodies, and
public investment in agricultural and rural infrastructure.
In view of the very high participation rate of women in the labour force, especially in
agriculture, the extension services have to be sensitised to the need to focus on the
flow of information to women at the household level. In view of the existing local
context of gender relations and class and caste divisions, innovative methods of
reaching the target group should be designed and adopted.
Rural women are closely associated with the use of local environmental resources
and management of bio-diversity, particularly in the Hill and Mountain regions.
Women may not be immediately able to take advantage of the opportunities created
by trade related aspects of intellectual property rights, but the possibility of their
being in the front line on management, production and claims to intellectual right on
medicinal plants and exotic plant products in the medium term seem to exist.
Women’s participation in the management and production of livestock products in
rural Nepal is rather high. Improvements to the quantity and quality of livestock
need to be linked with potential expansion of opportunities for rural women. The
livestock sector also has high potential for linking with agro processing in which
Nepalese women potentially can play a leading role.
Rural women work long hours under difficult conditions, often without proper
technologies to ease their productive and reproductive work. Hence, their wage level
and measured marginal products continue to be lower than those of men. This
discrepancy needs to be frontally attacked by empowering women through
introduction of appropriate improved technologies in the livestock and crop
production sectors to lessen their workloads and enhance their productivity.
Rural women are still tied to the household and farm economy. In devising
employment guarantee schemes and investments in public agricultural and other
rural infrastructure, there is a need for sensitivity to the needs of women who have
access to off-farm employment opportunities.
Urban women have to a significant extent successfully reclaimed their rightful place
in household dynamics, in that they have a degree of control and choice over their
productive and reproductive activities. Enjoyment of this right is not on the horizon
for most rural women. Successful attempts to assist in this context would have
extremely high social returns in addition to benefiting women directly. The social
benefit of improved access to family planning and to information and health facilities
would help the entire household and not just the women alone. Children would be
major beneficiaries of consequent improvement in household food security.
There is a huge gender bias against women in schools and in terms of access to health
facilities and other quasi-public goods. Positive discrimination in favour of women
and girls in devising, creating and delivering these facilities is of paramount
importance and unless women are empowered through proper education, the
J.Kaspersma Pagina 85 16-5-2012
NEPAL food security context analysis
chances that above recommended actions bring positive impact would be low and
less sustainable.
Nepalese rural women need to have legally secured entitlement to assets such as
land, water, information and technology. They also need access to human assets like
health, nutrition, education and skills. Providing some of these would require
changes in the legal framework, while others would entail the involvement of women
at all levels of a participatory decision-making processes.
School feeding
In view of our interest in positive discrimination in favour of females and lower caste people
who have traditionally been excluded from mainstream socio-economic development,
increased investment in affirmative action is needed in terms of school feeding. In Nepal
such programmes so far have been implemented in a number of districts through WFP
assistance. Under the Global Food for Education initiative, this programme supposedly was
extended from 2002 onwards to additional districts and regions, targeting areas where school
attendance of girls is low, where there is little or no enrolment of lower caste children and
where school dropout rates are high.
For such programmes to be effective, pre-programme baseline studies of child health
standards in the selected districts and regions are required, followed by rigorous monitoring
and evaluation. In view of the caste and class complexities in some parts of the country,
providing cooked meals may not be practicable, but providing a pre-determined quantity of
grains to the household in lieu of cooked meals would achieve the objectives to a significant
extent. The possibility of food provided under such programmes being consumed by other
members of the family cannot be ruled out. However, most of it is likely to be consumed by
the children including those who are not at school. To the extent that this happens it will
directly improve household food security.
J.Kaspersma Pagina 86 16-5-2012
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Annex 1
Strategies to improve access and equity:
Be exhaustive: Take all children at various ages into schools, be they formal or non
formal.
Encourage flexibility in the education system to suit local conditions: in time, location,
culture, religion etc.
Deploy the resources required: human resource capacity, community empowerment etc.
Develop, besides the formal system, adaptable strategies and alternative measures to
reach the targeted populations efficiently
Provide low-cost, community-based pre-primary programs: organized pre-primary
programs have double value in that they prepare children for school and also release
older siblings from childcare so they can attend school
Target marginalized groups with timely development assistance: Design specific
approaches to reach the minorities: Positive discrimination in favour of girls, the
marginalized, the very poor, disabled.
Create girl-friendly school environment:
Provide incentives to encourage females to take positions in the schools, to attract girls’
enrolment in school.
Identify how educational systems can be more effective to the needs of girls and women.
Provide more schools through massive infrastructure development, so schools are
within walking distance of pupils
Activate community participation
Encourage communities to contribute to erecting basic infrastructure, to share costs in
setting up more schools
Recruit teachers from the community: this minimizes problems of getting teachers to
serve in rural areas
Develop a very strong network of continuous learning: provide recurrent in-service
training and retraining of teachers (at least twice a year) and sustained academic
refresher courses for teachers
Set up decentralized clusters of networked training / support structures at national,
state, district, block and school levels.
Organize teacher mentoring and supervision that are motivational for teachers
Sustain teacher motivation through non-monetary rewards.
Strategies for management, decentralization, and partnership with civil society.
Fully implement a decentralization strategy:
Build effective management structure from State level to the village education
committee and school levels
Define roles and responsibilities at all levels
Provide for system learning over time and for highly effective information-based
planning system
J.Kaspersma Pagina 93 16-5-2012
Develop criteria, which permit assessment of each schools’ performance.
Build institutional capacity, continuously, at all levels. Government officials, educators
and community members receive training in joint sessions to facilitate dialogue and co-
operation between these diverse stakeholders.
Target effective programs by implicating NGOs and the civil society to help achieve
education for all.
Activate, institutionalize, and give statutory powers to community partnership in the
management of schools
Mobilize village activities for community participation in decision making at various
levels including the managing resources at school level
Set up / build capacity of Village Education Committees (VEC) which have
responsibilities and powers as school governing boards within their localities
Arrange for PTA’s to have a strong presence in the VEC
Complement PTA’s with Mother-Teacher Association (MTA) where necessary
Accord communities decision-making responsibilities for selecting and hiring teachers
J.Kaspersma Pagina 94 16-5-2012
